Captive Queen by Alison Weir – DNF Book Review

Jul 302010

Captive Queen by Alison Weir

Eleanor of Aquitaine is perhaps one of the most interesting queens that England ever had (sorry, Victoria, but I don’t think you hold a candle to Eleanor). She seems to have been the ultimate in smart and sassy 12th century women, unafraid to speak her mind, leave her first husband, or side with her sons in a revolt against her husband, King Henry II of England. So naturally, I was ecstatic when I read that Alison Weir’s new work of fiction would be about her.

Except that this was the most disappointing book I’ve read in a long time. Not necessarily the worst I’ve read, but the most disappointing, because I expect more from Weir. The dialogue was absolutely terrible, very stilted and modern, with Eleanor provocatively asking Henry to prove his manhood to her while she was still married to the King of France.

Which of course brings us to all the sex. Much has been made of the excessive sex in “Captive Queen.” I have no inherent problem with Eleanor as a sexual being. Honestly, I’ve always thought of her as a woman who wanted to make sure she took her pleasure, since that is consistent with the first fictional treatment of Eleanor I read. What I do have a problem with, is the excessive sex starting right at the beginning of the book. From what I understand it doesn’t necessarily continue, but it just made “Captive Queen” come across as tawdry from the beginning. Basically, it was just another example of the book being ill-crafted.

4839934753 59b41bff8f m picture From another author, I might have actually finished the book, but Weir can do better. The beginning was bad enough that even if the rest of the book was solid, it simply wasn’t worth my time, especially since I know there are better treatments of Eleanor out there.

Case in point, “The Courts of Love” by Jean Plaidy. Like Weir, Plaidy views Eleanor as a strong woman and a sexual being. However, she works Eleanor’s sexuality in natural way instead of dumping it all in the beginning. Her Eleanor also has much more natural speech pattern.

Consensus: Skip Weir’s new book, and pick up the Plaidy reissue “The Courts of Love” instead. Bonus: it is in paperback!

I received “Captive Queen” from the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I purchased “The Courts of Love” with my own money.

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan – Audiobook Review

Jul 292010

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, narrated by Roxana Ortega
Published in print by Knopf, an imprint of Random House
Published in audio by BBC Audiobooks America

Synopsis:

Jennifer Egan’s “A Visit from the Goon Squad” is a series of loosely interconnected story revolving around music industry professional Bennie Salazar and his employee, Sascha.

Thoughts on the story:

I know that wasn’t a very good book synopsis, but it is hard to say much else about “A Visit from the Goon Squad” plot-wise. Really, it is less about plot than about the theme of time – the goon squad – and how it changes everyone eventually. I think that Egan put this book together beautifully. She wove the stories together in a way that made me quickly understand that they were connected but weren’t building to any plot point, allowing me to sit back and let her immerse me in Sascha and Bernie’s past, present, and future. I would love to have an expanded novel all about Sascha, though, she absolutely captivated me in the opening story.

Thoughts on the audio production:

Roxana Ortega did a fabulous job narrating this story. She differentiated characters well with subtle differences in her voices, without making it sounds like she was trying too hard. It seemed that she was also able to keep characters’ voices fairly consistent from story to story, even those with exceedingly small roles.

I was a bit worried that I would find it hard to listen to interconnected stories instead of reading them, since I wouldn’t be able to easily flip back to remind myself of who a character was, but it really wasn’t a problem at all in “A Visit from the Good Squad,” thanks to Ortega’s job narrating and the skillful way that Egan constructed her stories.

Overall

Highly recommended. It was great in audio, but I think it would be equally great in print.

Buy this book from:
Powells: Audio/Print*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound: Print*
Amazon: Audio/Print*

This review was done with an audiobook received from BBC Audiobooks America.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The King’s Mistress by Emma Campion – Book Review

Jul 282010

The King’s Mistress by Emma Campion

Alice knows she is lucky when she is lucky when her father chooses Janyn Perrers for her to wed. Although he is a good deal older than she is, she finds he attractive and he has never been anything but gentle and kind towards her. For awhile, they have a lovely, happy life together, until it becomes clear that he and his family have a dangerous secret involving the Dowager Queen Isabella. When Isabella passes away, Alice ends up under the protection of King Edward III and Queen Philippa, only to become Edward’s long-time mistress, reviled by much of the country.

First of all, let me just do a little cheer that “The King’s Mistress” is English historical fiction that is not about the Tudors, the War of the Roses, or Eleanor of Aquitaine. Hooray! Originality!

Alice Perrers is a fascinating woman, and I am glad that Campion decided to take her on as a subject for this novel. A merchant’s daughter, she neither wanted nor expected to spend any time with the royal family, only to end up as a royal mistress and mother to three of the king’s children. Of course, the higher someone is raised, the more enmity they attract (Tudor fans, think Wolsey and Cromwell). Indeed, Alice ends up vilified by many of those around her, accused of taking advantage of the aging king in his growing senility during their final years together.

Although the beginning was a bit slow, I thought that Campion’s writing was quite good. I thought that, overall, she let Alice’s story unfold very well and very naturally. The only minor thing that annoyed me was Alice’s italicized musings at the beginning of each of the four sections. They all ended with “When had I a choice to be other than I was?” Yes, there was a certain degree to which Alice’s fate was really being decided for her by other people, but I disliked that strong current of helplessness from Alice in these sections, particularly because I found her to be a rather strong character in the book as a whole, working for what she felt was right or what she wanted whenever it was possibly in her somewhat powerless position.

Despite a couple of minor flaws, this was a great work of historical fiction, and I would highly recommend it to people looking for something other than the same old Tudor and War of the Roses historical novels.

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

I read this book as part of a TLC Book Tour. Check out some of the other tour hosts for more reviews. Links go to the host’s site, not to their specific review.

Tuesday, July 6th: Life in Review

Wednesday, July 7th: Luxury Reading

Thursday, July 8th: Life is a Patchwork Quilt

Friday, July 9th: Hist-Fic Chick

Monday, July 12th: The Tome Traveller

Tuesday, July 13th: Novel Whore

Wednesday, July 14th: Rundpinne

Thursday, July 15th: Stiletto Storytime

Thursday, July 22nd: Ask Miss A

Thursday, July 22nd: The Book Faery Reviews

Monday, July 26th: Chaotic Compendiums

Monday, July 26th: The Feminist Review

Wednesday, July 28th: Devourer of Books

Monday, August 2nd: S. Krishna’s Books

Wednesday, August 4th: Peeking Between the Pages

Friday, August 6th: Historical-Fiction.com

Thursday, August 12th: Enchanted by Josephine

* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Chouans and the Downfall of Napoleon – Guest Post by Catherine Delors, Author of “For the King”

Jul 272010

Catherine Delors is the author of “Mistress of the Revolution.” Her latest book, which I recently reviewed, is “For the King.” She’s here today giving more background as to some of the different groups that arose after the French Revolution. In particular, the Chouans, who play a large role is “For the King.”

The Chouans

On Christmas Eve 1800, a group of Chouans, royalist insurgents, detonated a bomb along Napoléon Bonaparte’s path. This assassination attempt provides the backdrop of my new novel, FOR THE KING. Readers have asked me for more information about them. Why the name Chouans? What drove them to political violence? Were they a major political force?

First the name comes from one of the early leaders of the insurgency, Jean Cottereau, nicknamed Jean Chouan. Chouan was a colorful character, already in trouble with the law years before the French Revolution for, among other misdeeds, killing a tax collector. Then the Revolution brought many changes. The Constitution Civile du Clergé required priests and nuns to pledge allegiance to the new Constitution of the kingdom, a step many considered a violation of their religious vows. Then King Louis XVI was guillotined. The war against the Austrians and their Prussian allies was off to a disastrous start. Soon the French armies were outnumbered, requiring the legislative body that ruled the country to decree a draft. That was the real trigger for the insurgency.

Jean Chouan

Peasants from the western provinces, already outraged by the persecution of their priests and the execution of their King downright refused to go die in faraway lands for a Republic they loathed. Fight they would, but against it, and from home.

The insurrection turned into a full-blown civil war. Soon the Republic had to fight not only the foreign war, but the Chouannerie in the West. The Chouans called themselves the Catholic and Royal Army. Atrocities were committed aplenty by both sides, but civilian populations bore the brunt of the hostilities. Entire villages were razed, churches burned to the ground, tens of thousands became refugees in their own country. The war raged on for years, with much British gold financing the Chouans, until Bonaparte put an end to the Revolution by the bloodless coup of the 18th Brumaire in 1799.

Bonaparte presented himself as the bearer of national reconciliation after the bloodshed of the Revolution. He offered the Chouans a full amnesty if they would lay down their arms, and he proclaimed the West pacified. Prominent leaders of the Catholic and Royal Army rallied to the new regime, but its most charismatic leader, George Cadoudal, scornfully declined Bonaparte’s offers.

Jean Chouan

Some Chouans went on fighting, engaging Bonaparte’s troops in skirmishes, attacking stagecoaches to steal the hated Republic’s gold, and also rob travelers. In 1800, at the time of FOR THE KING, the West was “pacified” in name only. Towards the fall of 1800, hundreds of Chouans converged on Paris, with the design of assassinating Bonaparte. As explained in FOR THE KING, they came only a few seconds away from succeeding.

They failed in 1800, only to try again in 1804. Again the assassination attempt missed its target, and again Bonaparte deftly used the fallout to crown himself Emperor Napoléon. But the Chouans, though defeated, had not lost the war.
In 1815, when Napoléon was facing an entire Continent united against France at Waterloo, a good part of his troops was far away, in the West, fighting… the Chouans. The insurgency had arisen once again. The Chouans never succeeded in assassinating Napoléon Bonaparte, but they were instrumental in his ultimate defeat.

For the King by Catherine Delors – Book Review

Jul 262010

For the King by Catherine Delors

It is Christmas Eve of 1800 when Paris is rocked by an explosion that narrowly misses killing First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte. Chief Inspector Roch Michel is called in to investigate. His investigation is not without danger for him and his family, however. Although Roch is convinced that the Chouans – royalists who wished to reinstate the French monarchy – are behind the attack, the Prefect of the police is adamant that the culprits are the Jacobins – a group to which Roch’s father has some ties. Soon it becomes clear that Roch must solve this case or risk his father’s safety, or even his life.

As is probably evident from the above description, “For the King” is something of an historical mystery or thriller, but it is written to flow more like standard historical fiction than a thriller or mystery. That combination worked brilliantly for me, I loved Delors’ writing.

Perhaps the best thing about “For the King” was how vivid the story way. Delors brought her characters and plot to live so well that I assumed the entire thing was a product of her imagination, just loosely based on the real struggles happening in France post-revolution. This turns out not to have been the case at all. Although she did take some historical liberties, melding or creating a few characters, etc in order to tell the story more fluidly, “For the King” is directly based upon real events. I was absolutely stunned to read that in her author note, after how much life she breathed into the story.

I really enjoyed “For the King” and would highly recommend it to those interested in a bit of historical mystery, or in the aftermath of the French Revolution.

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

This review was done with a book received for a blog tour.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

TSS: Short and Sweet

Jul 252010

I’m just popping in briefly today to say ‘hi’! This has been a busy week. The days I wasn’t working we had a playdate with another toddler right about Daniel’s age which was a good trek to get to, and a trip to the zoo with Daniel’s grandmothers and one of his aunts. Then yesterday we had a family reunion for hubby’s extended family. Between all that, Season 4 of LOST, and having to get a decent amount of sleep and exercise since I’m currently doing the Game On diet, it isn’t surprising I didn’t get much done. Today will be filled with cleaning, errands, and reading!

Here’s what I finished reading last week in print:

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And in audio:

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And here’s what I reviewed:

Both “Linger” and “Red Hook Road” have giveaways attached as well. As both of them were fantastic, I’d recommend entering said giveaways!

I also announced that I will be hosting an online bookclub for fabulous author Kristina Riggle’s latest book, “The Life You’ve Imagined” on September 7th and 8th. I don’t have any more copies to give away, but I’d highly encourage you to pick up a copy of the book when it is released on August 17th (or pre-order it! That does really great things for a book’s ranking) and join us. There will be great discussion, and Kristina herself may just be stopping by!

The Surrendered – Audiobook Review

Jul 232010

The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee, narrated by James Yaegashi
Published in print by Riverhead, an imprint of Penguin
Published in audio by Recorded Books

Synopsis:

As much as I hate using the publisher’s description of books, I think I may have to for “The Surrendered.” There was so much going on I don’t think I can put it together coherently.

June Han was only a girl when the Korean War left her orphaned; Hector Brennan was a young GI who fled the petty tragedies of his small town to serve his country. When the war ended, their lives collided at a Korean orphanage where they vied for the attentions of Sylvie Tanner, the beautiful yet deeply damaged missionary wife whose elusive love seemed to transform everything. Thirty years later and on the other side of the world, June and Hector are reunited in a plot that will force them to come to terms with the mysterious secrets of their past, and the shocking acts of love and violence that bind them together.

As Lee unfurls the stunning story of June, Hector, and Sylvie, he weaves a profound meditation on the nature of heroism and sacrifice, the power of love, and the possibilities for mercy, salvation, and surrendering oneself to another. Combining the complex themes of identity and belonging of Native Speaker and A Gesture Life with the broad range, energy, and pure storytelling gifts of Aloft, Chang-rae Lee has delivered his most ambitious, exciting, and unforgettable work yet. It is a mesmerizing novel, elegantly suspenseful and deeply affecting.

Thoughts on the story:

I really didn’t quite like the way that “The Surrendered” was structured. It opened with June in Korea, and then jumped ahead to her adult life. Shortly after we realize that she’s very sick and about to go off in search of her child, we jump to a pretty long section on Hector. At that point I had no idea how they really connected, and wasn’t sure why we had left June. I thought that this just went on too long, and it really broke up my investment in the story. In addition, June’s search for her son seemed to me like it was too much simply a vehicle to get her and Hector together and to tell their story in Korea, it didn’t have enough of an emotional impact for my taste. I think I would have preferred “The Surrendered” had it been set solely in Korea, with perhaps some flashbacks to Hector’s life before the war.

Thoughts on the audio production:

I’m sort of sad, because this production was so well done, and yet it so didn’t work for me. My first problem was that the entire first two discs worth of story didn’t have any dialog at all. This is obviously not the fault of James Yaegashi or Recorded Books, but it made it seem like Yaegashi was reading more than narrating. It wasn’t until I got farther into the story that I realized what a good narrator he actually really is. My biggest problem with “The Surrendered” in audio, though, was all the jumping around the story did between characters and in time. Perhaps I’m just not yet a sophisticated enough connoisseur, but I have a difficult time following most stories that jump around a lot in audio. I find that in print there tend to be clues in the formatting of the book, and it is much easier for me to jump back to find where that thread of storyline left off in print.

Overall:

Because so many factors contributed to me not really liking “The Surrendered” I think that others with different pet peeves many enjoy it, but I can’t quite recommend it.

Buy this book from:
Audible: Audio
Powells: Print*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound: Print*
Amazon: Print*

This review was done with an audiobook received from Recorded Books for review.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin – Book Review

Jul 222010

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
Published by St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of Macmillan

When Nick has to leave in the middle of their anniversary dinner, Tessa doesn’t really mind. That is, after all, the price of being married to a pediatric surgeon: when other families have emergencies, their family often loses his attention. This time, though, his attention isn’t just lost for an evening. Things have been a little difficult at home where Tessa feels less than fulfilled as a stay-at-home mom and they have two small children, and Nick finds himself drawn to Valerie, the single mother of his newest patient, Charlie.

This is my first experience with Emily Giffin. In the past, I have passed over her books due to the pastel covers. They looked like just the sort of chick lit that I don’t enjoy. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when I actually opened “Heart of the Matter.” I really liked her style, characterizations, and writing in general. I thought that having both Tessa and Valerie narrate the book was a good decision for this story, as was telling Tessa’s story in the first person and Valerie’s in the third, which made it easy to immediately tell who was speaking since both narrators were women in similar places in their lives.

Although I was impressed by Giffin’s writing, I’m still somewhat conflicted about “Heart of the Matter” overall. The premise seems to be that Tessa was at least equally responsible with Nick and Valerie for her husband’s cheating, which is a somewhat reprehensible idea to me. Tessa’s earlier broken engagement for Nick and the fact that her brother cheated on his once-fiancee with the woman who is now his wife, along with her father’s cheating on her mother when she were younger also adds to this interpretation. Valerie knew she was doing wrong the entire time, but never actually bothered to put the brakes on what was going on with her and another woman’s husband. Of course, Nick is the one who actually had a responsibility to Tessa and his family to remain faithful. I really wish that he had been one of our narrators as well, so we could have gotten a better idea of what he was thinking.

If the cheating doesn’t bother you, then I recommend “Heart of the Matter,” but if it is a hot button topic with you, I don’t think you’ll like how Giffin approaches it, so stay away.

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

This review was done with a book received from the publisher for my participation in the SheKnows Book Club.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman – Book Review

Jul 212010

Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman
Published by Doubleday, an imprint of Random House

Becca and John’s wedding is a gorgeous and happy event despite everything that goes wrong, like the flower girl losing her basket before pictures, Becca’s father wearing sneakers because he packed two left dress shoes, and the fact that their mothers don’t really get along well. When the group pictures are finished, Becca and John stay behind for more pictures while the rest of the wedding party and guests move on to the reception. Everyone begins to get antsy when the bride and groom take an inordinately long time to arrive, until it finally becomes clear that tragedy has struck what should have been such a happy day, and both families will have to figure out a way to live with their grief.

I’m not sure there is a single thing I would change about “Red Hook Road,” it just captivated me and held me rapt, letting me experiencing the grief and anger of Becca and John’s without putting me so deep into their emotions that I couldn’t bear to pick up the book.

The prelude of the book was perfectly done. Waldman described the wedding in impersonal terms: the bride, the groom, the flower girl, letting the reader watch what was unfolding without yet being sure who these characters were and how they would play into the story. It was very well done, and I think a good decision since the bride and groom were obviously very central characters in the wedding, but in the rest of the book served as more of catalysts for emotion and action than as actual characters.

It would have been easy for a novel about four summers of grief and attempts at healing to seem drawn out and perhaps even obnoxious. Not so with “Red Hook Road.” Waldman’s characters continued to evolve and deal with their pain in different ways, even as they clung to the memories of their lost family members, and even as their loss exacerbated other problems in their lives.

Waldman hit every note perfectly with “Red Hook Road.” After reading it I feel the need to read her previous novels as soon as possible. Very highly recommended.

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

This review was done with a book received from the publisher, through Shelf Awareness.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Announcing: The “The Life You’ve Imagined” Book Club with Kristina Riggle

Jul 202010

4811084236 09d9d2b642 m picture Friends! Have I told you again about “Real Life and Liars” recently?

“Real Life and Liars” was one of my favorite books last year, and it’s author, Kristina Riggle, is one of my favorite authors on Twitter.

Well, she has a new book out, and it is one of my most anticipated reads this summer.

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“The Life You’ve Imagined” will be available from your favorite bookseller on August 17th, but you can get it here first if you’d like to join us for a book club discussion!

I’ll take the first 20 people who fill out the following Google form. However, to be eligible for a copy of the book, I ask that you agree to the following considerations:

Participate in our book club discussion here on this blog on September 7th and 8th
Either post a review of this book on your book blog or, if you don’t have a book blog, tell at least 5 friends about the book.

We’ll have some discussion, some Q&A, and Kristina Riggle herself may even stop by.

Sorry, all of the copies are gone, but “The Life You’ve Imagined” will be out on August 17th. If you really wanted to participate, feel free to get a copy on your own and join us!

Older Entries

Devourer of Books

Captive Queen by Alison Weir – DNF Book Review

I received “Captive Queen” from the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I purchased “The Courts of Love” with my own money.

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan – Audiobook Review

The King’s Mistress by Emma Campion – Book Review

The Chouans and the Downfall of Napoleon – Guest Post by Catherine Delors, Author of “For the King”

For the King by Catherine Delors – Book Review

TSS: Short and Sweet

The Surrendered – Audiobook Review

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin – Book Review

Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman – Book Review

Announcing: The “The Life You’ve Imagined” Book Club with Kristina Riggle

Sorry, all of the copies are gone, but “The Life You’ve Imagined” will be out on August 17th. If you really wanted to participate, feel free to get a copy on your own and join us!

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I received “Captive Queen” from the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I purchased “The Courts of Love” with my own money.

Sorry, all of the copies are gone, but “The Life You’ve Imagined” will be out on August 17th. If you really wanted to participate, feel free to get a copy on your own and join us!

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