Average Reader

Ewww-but I just can't put it down

A long time ago, I read Wideacre by Philippa Gregory.  The book was incredibly pulling but I was also incredibly repulsed by some, ok many of the things the main characters did.  I would consider it a good book, especially since I remember it so vividly.
I just read the second book in the trilogy, The Favored Child, and while there weren't as many repulsive actions taken by the two main characters I had a similar strong feeling of disgust with Julia Lacey who the book really centers around.  I had to put the book down many times just aghast at how stupid on person can be and how much trouble and pain they can bring on themselves in an effort to stupidly protect someone they love who just keeps hurting others.
Seriously, it was amazing how dumb she could be in the name of love. 
Once again, I consider this book an amazing success.  How many books make the characters so real you just want to call the girl on the phone and tell her to use her brain?  Not many.  I am off to get the last book in the trilogy, Meridon.

Buy it here

Speechless

For the past week I have been trying to sort out my feelings about A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini but the words just aren't right.  How can I describe a book that was so poignant, sad, and affecting that I was moved beyond tears? 

Hosseini's tale about two women trying to survive in Afghanistan was brilliant.  Funny in places, but for the most part, he simply makes you feel.  Every emotion, even the death of feeling, is wrung out of the reader through  the average lives of these women.  Women similar to thousands of women trying to survive each day in Afghanistan.

While I know it is impossible to truly understand what a real woman lives through in Afghanistan, I feel much closer to understanding after reading this story. 

You all know I don't often use words like poignant, or get all emotional, the women in this book, made my heart hurt for them, for their pain, and for the sacrifices of friendship and love. A Thousand Splendid Suns is truly an amazing read.

Buy it here.

Bestsellers

1.  Brisingr (Inheritence #3)

2.  Eat Pray Love

3. Tales of Beedle Bard

4. The EFT Manual

5. Eclipse

A Southern spit fire

After watching Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland banter and fight in the movie version of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All I decided I had to read the book. While the movie had followed the basic line of the book, there were many things that were glossed over and modified for the movie.  So the book felt very fresh for me.
Allan Gurganus, wrote an incredibly poignant and...descriptive.. book.  While I have not checked the historical accuracy, other than searching out who the actual oldest living confederate widow was, everything felt so incredibly real, it was like I was talking to Lucille Marsden one on one.  Gurganus nailed the vernacular, the mannerisms and the wandering way an old woman with a long story to tell and nothing but time tells it. 
This book is alive. While I read it, I could smell the lilacs and dust.  This held true for a painful portion (glossed over in the movie) that describes what happened to Captain Marsden's mother.  I only mention it as a warning.  The descriptive nature of the book really grabs you in this section and I had nightmares from it.  Her pain, and horrific story just wouldn't leave me.
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All is the best book I have read in at least a year.  The humanity of it becomes a friend.  Lucille is your friend and listening to her story will bring out emotions you forgot. You want her to stop because you might not be able to handle her secret, but you listen because no single person should have to hold all that inside forever. You forget she isn't even real.
I am buying a copy for my personal library.  That is how much I enjoyed it. 

Buy it here.

Eh, I read what?

Well I just finished Brookland by Emily Barton, and honestly, I don't remember all that much about it.  The story of the first Brooklyn bridge, and the inhabitants of the burgeoning area was interesting but I wish the book had taken a different turn.  I know, it was supposed to focus on the bridge but the characters felt neglected and and often secondary to technical jargon I found difficult to follow and picture.

The main character, Prue, was a complex woman, who, the author had doing many things that did not flow with the personality such as jumping into bed with her long time friend when she is by all accounts a worrying, over-thinker. The ending seemed rather abrupt.  I do not want to give anything away but I remember actually stopping and saying out loud, "why would Pearl do that? She has what she wants?"

So while Brookland had everything set up to fully interest and captivate me, it fell short. To be fair, I will be checking out another book by Barton, The Testament of Yves Gundron to see if this was just a one time bout with blahness, or an on going thing.

Buy Brookland here.

Another sucess

We all know I am partial to Phillipa Gregory.  This doesn't mean I love everything she writes but I do enjoy most of them.  The latest book in the enjoy category is The Boleyn Inheritance.  Writing about the lives of three women woven together, playing off each other is difficult yet Gregory pulls it off with ease.  She makes writing look simple.
The characters are incredibly real.  Well of course they are real people from history, but Gregory actually manages to have them step out off the page and swim around in my head. 
USA Today said it best, she is "the queen of royal fiction."

Visit Gregory's website

An Exotic Journey

After a wild shopping spree through the bookstore where I grabbed books off a table with wild abandon I came home with The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall.  I have never heard of Kate Furnivall but, as always, I am willing to give every author a chance.  This is one instance when I was pleasantly surprised.
The Russian Concubine was engaging, and I really felt I got a vacation.  Of course there were areas I had to gloss over.  The book started a bit slow, but once it started it was worth the wait. 
I think Furnivall will only get better and better and I look forward to seeing more work from her.

Visit the author's site.

So close, but not enough

We all know I love historical fiction.  My obvious preference cannot be hidden.  I am a sucker for anything set any time but now and we all know I am a big sucker for Paris.  So when I read the teaser for Mademoiselle Victorine by Debra Finerman I had high hopes.
Sadly those hopes weren't quite realized.  Finerman is a good writer and you can tell she knows Paris.  She knows the history of Paris.  What I felt she didn't truly know was her character, Victorine Laurent. 
I never felt she actually knew how Victorine would react or what actions she would take.  This lack of closeness really kept me distant from Victorine and therefore, distant from the story. 
I couldn't figure out why a writer would write about a character they didn't not know until I read the Author's Note at the back of the book and I realized that Finerman had attempted something I consider a very difficult aspect of historical fiction, creating a fictional character based on real people and then weaving that character into the lives of real people. According to Finerman she borrowed aspects of Countess Virginia de Castiglione and Victorine Meurent to create Victorine Laurent.  She then wove Laurent back into Edouard Manet's life. 
I will, of course, keep trying to get close to Victorine Laurent so I can truly experience the story but I think this is one story that will always keep me removed and distant.
Try it out for yourself and if you unwrap the mystery of Mademoiselle Victorine, please share the secret key that will open up that world.

Visit the author's website to learn more.

Philippa Gregory is amazing

Recently I went to the library and checked out almost every book they had by Philippa Gregory.  Ok ,so I only got three out, The Favored Child, Meridon, and Earthly Joys.  That was all they had left. I have to admit I truly enjoyed each and every one., but to be completely honest I didn't like Earthly Joys as much as the others. 
Of course she writes my favorite genre, historical fiction. 
Meridon and The Favored Child were the conclusions to the Wideacre trilogy about an incestuous family lusting after their land no matter what the cost.  The story is good, the details are tidy and stay away from out right disgust considering the subject matter.

Although I do not go back and double check the facts as I would with some other authors, I really feel Gregory researches each book completely.  I first became addicted to Gregory with The Virgin's Lover and I trusted her research then as well.  I am not a history buff but I do love catching someone when they are wrong.  Gregory just gets me so caught up in the story she could be lying to me and I still wouldn't care.  The characters are that enticing.  I dare anyone who has never read historical fiction to pick up one of her books and not get completely enthralled.  If you love a good read, you will love Philippa Gregory.

I can't wait to read Gregory's newest novel, The Constant Princess.  It is available on amazon and in your local bookstore. A review of this novel will come as soon as I can get my hands on a copy.

To learn more about Philippa Gregory

New York Forever

With the holidays often come the fun and the dull family events. In between the two I search for things to entertain me and distract me from the dull functions. While searching through my mother's house, where normally there are mass quantities of romance novels full of heaving bosoms and the previously hurt and wary men, I found a book that, thankfully, made the heaving bosoms invisible.
Forever by Pete Hamill is a suprisingly addicting sojourn through the history of New York from long before the Revolutionary War to modern day. The story has everything you need, revenge, love, lust, despair, greed and history evenly distributed so it doesn't come across as cheesy fluff.
I recently visited New York for the first time as an adult (there is a BIG difference) and I fell in love! The city sucked me in heart and soul and this book took me back there and made each site more alive. Wandering through the city following Cormac O' Connor's plan of revenge against the Warren family you are able to learn the darkest history of New York. The pain caused by his dedication through hundreds of years, thousands of losses, watching everyone he knows and cares about die while constantly staying the same, always in New York is hard to watch but also beautiful. Forever is for all those who wish they could walk the streets they dream about and live the lives they idolize. It is a dreamer's fantasy put into words.

Visit the author's site to learn more Pete Hamill