Upcoming Challenge: The Debutante Ball 2010 Reading Challenge

Sep 122009

You may remember that last Sunday I wrote a post about how I’m coveting all of the books from the authors of next year’s Debutante Ball. In case you missed it, The Debutante Ball is a group blog where 5 debut authors get together and blog about different topics each week for a year. Some tpoics are bookish, others are less so. Each year’s Debs are chosen by the previous year’s Debs and, in my experience, all of them write fantastic books.

Thanks to some encouragement in that original coveting post, I have decided to host a challenge based around The Debutante Ball. The lovely Swapna, who told me about The Debs in the first place, is going to be co-hosting with me. We’re waiting until after BBAW to work out all of the kinks, but you can expect the challenge to cover the 5 books written by this year’s Debs and it will likely run all year. There may be some extension to read books by previous Debs (The Ball goes back to 2007) and there will DEFINITELY be prizes or giveaways.

If you think you might be interested, let me know here, or in Swapna’s pre-announcement post, and we’ll let you know when the details are announced. Oh! And feel free to grab the button:

DebBallButton1 picture

You Tell Me: A Good Mystery

Sep 112009

My bookclub is looking for a mystery to read in October. For hopefully obvious reasons, they often ask me for suggestions, but I don’t really have any good ones this time. I don’t read a lot of mysteries and the ones I have read lately are mostly cozy mysteries, so they aren’t sort of spooky October-y.

What we want:
- A mystery, probably not a cozy
- A paperback, because not everyone wants to shell out for a hardcover if it isn’t available from the library
- Not much more than 350 pages, shorter is okay, a little longer if it is a really quick read. Everyone in the bookclub likes to read, but not all have much time to do so
- Preferably something fairly literary, so as better to faciliate disccussion

So readers, bloggers, let me know if you have something you have liked. Heck, publicists, publishers, and authors, here’s your chance to plug your book without it being considered spam.

Mistress of the Vatican – Book Review

Sep 112009

Mistress Of The Vatican: The True Story Of Olimpia Maidalchini: The Secret Female Pope by Eleanor Herman

When Olimpia Maidalchini was coming of age in 17th century Italy (well, what would become Italy, but I’m going to call it Italy for the sake of this review), there was a huge problem with dowry inflation. Some or all of the women in many families were sent to convents instead of being married off. Olimpia’s father planned to send her and her sisters to convents, but Olimpia was not about to allow herself to be locked away from society. A very good first marriage to a husband who died young gave Olimpia the financial resources she needed to marry into a noble Roman family in an attempt to gain power for herself in an age when women did not have much power.

Upon marrying Pamphilio Pamphili, Olimpia hoped she could catapult her husband into temporal power. When this failed, she turned her machinations to her brother in law, Giambattista whose vocation was the church. Olimpia helped Giambattista become a papal nuncio, a Cardinal, and eventually Pope Innocent X. Rumored to be her brother-in-law’s mistress, Olimpia basically ran Giambattista’s career and, once he became Pope, she basically ran the Vatican, creating many enemies along the way.

Donna Olimpia Maidalchini

Herman has really found an interesting story to tell in Olimpia Maidalchini. Olimpia was a strong woman and an abrasive personality in a time when owmen were supposed to be subservient and most certainly were not supposed to hold positions (even unofficial) of power within the church. The sheer amount of information about 17th century Italy was a bit overwhelming at times, but most or all of it did add to my understanding of Olimpia’s story.

I was somewhat frustrated by the use of endnotes over footnotes, but that seems to be pretty common in the more popular treatments of history lately. I don’t think I’ve seen footnotes since college. Of course, Herman doesn’t seem like the typical historian. Don’t get me wrong, she seems to really know her facts and is really pretty objective, but she is the sassiest, snarkiest history writer I’ve ever read. I know there are snarkier moments than this, but this is what I can put my finger on:

The clearest sign of demonic possession was a gyrating pelvis. Anyone caught dong a seventeenth-century version of Elvis Presley – no matter how many cripples he healed – would have been drenched with holy water immediately and would, most likely, have responded with hisses and howls.

-Page 267

I know they study different periods, but I can’t imagine Jon Meacham referring to anyone as a “seventeenth-century version of Elvis.” This could be a plus or a minus, depending on your preferences, but I enjoyed it, it kept things interesting.

I liked “Mistress Of The Vatican” because it was informative and sort of fun. It definitely made me want to read more of Herman’s work. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I have her “Sex With Kings” around here somewhere, I may have to go and dig that out.

Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local indepdent bookseller via Indiebound.
Amazon.

Thank you to Stephanie from HarperCollins for sending me this book to review.

Your Amazing Newborn – Book Review

Sep 102009

Your Amazing Newborn by Marshall and Phyllis Klaus

This book came highly recommended to me by friends of my mother. My husband and I both read it before Daniel was born so we (and especially he, who had much less experience with babies) would know what we were in for, particularly in the first couple of weeks.

“Your Amazing Newborn” focuses on the time just before and just after a baby is born. It includes information about sight, hearing, sleep and wake states, and much more. Specific studies are referenced about babies’ preference for faces, syncing their movements to voice, etc.

I think that we both really appreciated “Your Amazing Newborn.” Not al of the information is necessarily practical stuff that you need to deal with your newborn, but we are both people who like to know more about what is going on. We liked knowing that if we stuck our tongues out at Daniel he would do it back or that he would love looking at patterns.

I think this is an interesting book for parents-to-be who are curious and want to understand more about their baby.

Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookseller via Indiebound.
Amazon.

Library Loot – September 10, 2009

Sep 102009

library loot picture

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

This week I took out a lot of media. I borrowed books four and five of Harry Potter on audio, as well as a dvd of season 2 of the television show Psych, which is one of my favorites. Now for the books:

“The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart” is being borrowed for the second time, I previously had to return is unread because someone else had it on hold. I’m excited to read it because it is by a local author (he teaches at the community college in our city).

ballad of trenchmouth taggart picture

I got “Bad Mother” for a challenge Amy is doing based on someone’s list of the 50 books that are important for our society (maybe? something like that at least…). I have no idea where I have the link for that challenge, but I’m supposed to read and review this book for it. Maybe someone has the link?

Bad Mother picture

“Temptation of the Night Jasmine” is the next book in Lauren Willig’s series. I’ve enjoyed the books, but they’re sooo fluffy that I just couldn’t justify buying another one, even though I have the rest of them somewhere.

temptation of the night jasmine picture

I requested Michelle Moran’s “Nefertiti” because I ADORED “The Heretic Queen” and I wanted to read her other adult book before reading her new young adult book, “Cleopatra’s Daughter”.

Nefertiti picture

Have you read any of these? Have you gotten anything great from the library lately?

Please Allow Me To Geek Out Yet Again

Sep 092009

This is another ‘squeeeeee!’ moment. So I was at my office today, saying ‘hi’ before I go back on Monday and talking with Daniel’s new babysitter – no, this is not the geek-out moment, as much as I like my job – so while I was there, I saw that there was a package for me on the front desk. Without thinking about it too much, I opened it as I was talking to everyone. Then I stopped. In this little package was a big, beautiful copy of “The Swan Thieves.”

the swan thieves picture

Is that cover not completely gorgeous?

Elizabeth Kostova is the author of the love-it-or-hate-it book “The Historian.” If you can’t tell by the fact that this, her sophomore book, made me ‘squeeeee,’ I was in the ‘love it’ camp. I’ve been looking forward to “The Swan Thieves” since early this year, and now I have a copy! I’m not sure when I’ll post my review, since it isn’t out until January, but it is probably going to be one of the next few books I read (I’d read it RIGHT NOW, but there’s another book I really need to get to before I go back to work).

In case you were curious, here’s the publisher’s description I got from Amazon:

Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe, devoted to his profession and the painting hobby he loves, has a solitary but ordered life. When renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient, Marlow finds that order destroyed. Desperate to understand the secret that torments the genius, he embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver and a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism.

Kostova’s masterful new novel travels from American cities to the coast of Normandy, from the late 19th century to the late 20th, from young love to last love. THE SWAN THIEVES is a story of obsession, history’s losses, and the power of art to preserve human hope.

The Marriage Bureau For Rich People – Book Review

Sep 092009

The Marriage Bureau For Rich People by Farahad Zama

Although Mr. Ali has been retired for some time, he has decided to start his own business to fill his free time. A marriage bureau seems just the thing in India, where many marriages are still arranged. His business is so successful that his wife hires him an assistant, Aruna. Although Aruna’s family are Brahmins, they have fallen on hard financial times. Her father doesn’t have the money even to provide her with a dowry or pay for a wedding.

“The Marriage Bureau For Rich People” provides a great sense of place. I absorbed so much about Southern Indian customs while reading this book. Oh, and I craved Indian food all day while reading it.

There was something about the style of the writing that was throwing me off at the beginning of the book, but I became involved enough in the story that I stopped noticing it. I will also say that most of the characters were pretty superficial, although Aruna was fairly well fleshed-out and a great character. Really, though, I liked it a lot despite the flaws.

The best book I’ve read all year? No. However, it was a very fun and enjoyable read. I liked it.

Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.
Amazon.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me this book to review!

The White Queen – Book Review

Sep 082009

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

England has been in the midst of a destructive civil war for years when the beautiful Elizabeth Woodville meets the Edward of York, the man who recently managed to take the crown from the witless King Henry VI. Whether thanks to her mother’s spells or her own pretty face, Elizabeth not only succeeds in getting Edward to return her lands to her, but also causes Edward to love her. In a move that Ann Boleyn would copy with Elizabeth’s grandson, she swears that she is too virtuous to be Edwards mistress and so, since he decides that he must have her, he marries Elizabeth in a secret ceremony.

After their marriage is announced, Edward and Elizabeth begin putting her family in positions of power all over the country. Interestingly, in this treatment of the Plantagenets, Edward does not simply humor his scheming wife in ennobling her relatives, but is almost the impetus of the plan, wanting to create a network of people in power who are loyal to him, his wife, and the rest of his family. No matter, whichever way it happened, it still causes resentment among people all over the country, in positions high and low, including Edwards own brothers.

Although Gregory takes some liberties with the facts (and makes some historical mistakes), by and large she seems to stick fairly close to the historical record on this one, such as it is. Much has been made about Elizabeth and her mother being ‘witches’ in this book, but the magical element seemed perfectly reasonable to me. The magic they do is closer to early Briton pagan beliefs than devil worship or black magic, it seems more a way for them to try to protect themselves and their families in an age when women had relatively little power than witchcraft as we might think of it. It seemed quite believable to me that, if not Elizabeth and Jacquetta, many women of the time might engage in similar rituals.

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you’ll know that I was HUGELY disappointed with Gregory’s last book, “The Other Queen.” I had high hopes for that one, as Mary Queen of Scots is such an interesting figure, but it simply did not deliver for me. After that experience, I was a bit wary about reading her again. I’m happy to say, “The White Queen” is light years better than “The Other Queen,” perhaps even better than much of her Tudor series (bonus: when writing about the Plantagenets she doesn’t have Elizabeth Tudor to kick around!). Still, I don’t think it quite reached the level of “The Other Boleyn Girl,” although it is possible that this is because Mary’s story was completely fresh to me then and I’ve read much about the War of the Roses over the past few years. I will say, though, that the first half of the book was a bit repetitive in places, and some turns of phrase seemed oddly familiar to me.

Probably the most enjoyable book I’ve read from Philippa Gregory in some time. If you like her, definitely grab this one.

Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.
Amazon.

Teaser Tuesday – Mistress of the Vatican

Sep 082009

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

The clearest sign of demonic possession was a gyrating pelvis. Anyone caught dong a seventeenth-century version of Elvis Presley – no matter how many cripples he healed – would have been drenched with holy water immediately and would, most likely, have responded with hisses and howls.

-Mistress of the Vatican: The True Story of Olimpia Maidalchini, the Secret Female Pope by Eleanor Herman

The Widow’s Season – Book Review

Sep 072009

The Widow’s Season by Laura Brodie

Sarah’s husband David died three months ago in a flash flood, but his body was never found. Then she sees him at the grocery store. This isn’t the same as the times she’s seen other men that initially looked like him, this IS him. His shirt, his baseball cap, him. Over the coming weeks Sarah sees David again and again. Is he really alive and there, is he a ghost, or is he simply a figment of Sarah’s imagination?

I really enjoyed this book. It was hauntingly sad and poignant. Sarah and her husband had been having troubles in their marriage for many years before his disappearance, and it was fascinating to watch her try to work through the grieving process when she wasn’t even sure exactly what she was grieving anymore. Although I had a strong suspicion as to whether or not David was still alive, I couldn’t stop wondering and second guessing right through to the end of the book.

Lovely and enjoyable.

Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.
Amazon.