Review

Review – Cleopatra: A Life

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Cleopatra: A Life

By Stacy Schiff

Little, Brown & Company

ISBN: 978-0-316-12180-4

4 stars

She’s been portrayed as a seductress, a whore, a queen, a brilliant woman, a trailblazer, and was even played by Elizabeth Taylor in a role she’ll always be remembered for.  But who was the woman we know as Cleopatra?  Accounts of her life vary so greatly I believe what I personally know about her is probably based more on a pop culture standard than on reality.  Reading about her makes me wonder how a woman so smart — she was an extremely well-educated woman for her time able to speak several languages — could manage to both get herself into and out of trouble so many times.  Cleopatra managed to rule a kingdom, make it prosper, and seduce two Roman rulers without an uprising occurring in Egypt during her reign.  By any standard, she deserves a place in history.

Unfortunately, and I’ve encountered this before in reading about ancient women, her story is told by men and through the men in her life which means a good portion of the book is set aside for Julius Caesar and Marc Antony.  Frankly, they both played such enormous roles in her life that it would be impossible to exclude either in the telling of her story, but many recorders of history, mostly Roman men, preferred to write her life story as one of luck, scandal, sheer bravado, sheer stupidity (depending on who is doing the writing), and in some cases, slightly in wonder of her.  Cicero ’s take on Cleopatra is infuriating but he’s no fan of women in general and there was no expectation that he would treat Cleopatra, even though a queen in her own right, with anything nearing awe or even dignity.  Granted, many of her acts — her first appearance before Julius Caesar she is smuggled into his presence in a burlap bag — aren’t so regal.  Her trip to Rome to visit Caesar is though and that’s where this book shines.

Schiff takes a story about a woman we know and strips away many of the generalizations about her and presents someone still recognizable but also intriguing.  She starts off with her education which is amazing for the time period considering most women, and definitely most Roman women, were never educated at all.  She could speak several languages which made beguiling audiences and male rules rather easy.  She created a currency system with denominations and managed a vast wealth without losing it to the men in her life.  Egypt prospered with her as queen and she built what some consider wonders of the ancient world.  Sadly, none survive to this day and most likely collapsed in a giant earthquake and now rest underwater leaving readers to imagine what an amazing site Alexandria must have been in her day.

Cleopatra in many ways helped to create the image of her that we have today.  Inscriptions and temple carvings still exist of her and her children in Egypt and she was a master of managing her image.  Her identity with the goddess Isis and the luxurious ways in which she inhabited her life would cause anyone to be impressed, especially a general like Marc Antony who was easily impressed, had little to no money, and couldn’t manage it when he did happen to get it.  He was also a womanizer and easily taken in by Cleopatra and the impressive world of her Egypt.

I realize this isn’t necessarily helpful as a review and I haven’t told you much in general about the book itself.  Sometimes I admit to having trouble reviewing non-fiction books since there isn’t a plot to follow but if anyone’s life would read like a novel, it would be Cleopatra’s.

If you’re looking for some good non-fiction, pick this one up.  You’ll walk away fascinated and full of facts you’ll want to spout off to everyone you meet.

Review – Becoming Marie Antoinette

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Becoming Marie Antoinette

By Juliet Grey

Ballantine Books

ISBN: 9780345523860

4 stars

Marie Antoinette has long been a favorite character of mine in historical fiction. The French court, the elaborate pomp and circumstance, and then there is the setting — Versailles. In Becoming Marie Antoinette, Grey takes us past the court window dressings introducing us to a young girl struggling to fit in and be someone much more French than her Austrian roots allow.

The Austrian court is a quiet refuge for a young Marie Antonia, the youngest daughter of the empress. She has a lot of freedom and never having been much of a scholar, she does her best to avoid every lesson possible. When she’s told she will be marrying the Dauphin of France, Louis Auguste, she spends her days dreaming of marriage and children. However, she fails to understand her future marriage is more than a simple arrangement; it will be the culmination of a treaty between the Austrian empress and the French king. Her days spent dreaming in the garden are over. Her mother, knowing she needs to impress not only the French ambassador but eventually the French king, his court, and the country’s people, Marie Antonia’s education begins again with a decided slant towards making her not just appear French but to be French.

Understanding for the first time the gravity of her marriage, Marie Antonia takes everything seriously from learning to endure French hair and clothing to performing the Versailles glide — a way of walking through the halls of the palace — perfectly. When her wedding plans are finally announced, the young daydreamer has been transformed into a young woman who may not entirely understand her new role, but is willing to try. Anxious to finally meet her husband, she does her best to make a good impression on everyone she meets during her journey. When she finally arrives, more changes await her, the least of which is being stripped of everything Austrian to be replaced completely with French versions including her name. She submits; Marie Antonia becomes Marie Antoinette.

Determined to be nothing if not loved, Marie Antoinette makes it her duty to impress: her husband, the king, and the court. Unfortunately, not everyone finds her alluring and especially not her new husband. A quiet man of few words, she can’t figure out how to get through to him and the rumors of a virginal marriage bed begin to haunt her. With no place to find solace in a court constantly full of gossipy, curious courtiers, she attempts to understand the man who is her husband.

What’s so interesting about this particular story is that we meet a young Marie Antoinette who has no head for academics but is able to make just about everyone love her. She’s fun and while she knows her freedom won’t last, she’s resigned to making the best of it. While the Marie Antoinette we meet isn’t the refined and glamorous woman of most historical fiction, she’s certainly a lovable character and most of that is due to her age. She’s young, incredibly young even for her age. And while you may know what’s coming her way, she seems blissful at least to a certain point. It’s when she comes to understand the difficulties that lay ahead for her, you begin to not only like her but feel for her. A foreign archduchess, she’s not looked upon kindly and realizes fast there are few she can trust in her new home.

The relationship with Louis has its poignant moments and frankly some embarrassing ones as well. But you also see two young adults attempting to figure out what’s expected of them and how they plan to live up to those expectations. Finding they love each other along the way lends sweetness to a story that can easily be trounced on by an overbearing French court. There are a few places in the story when I did wish for less information as Grey has obviously done her research but overall those moments don’t cause harm. In many ways this is a coming of age story, but it’s also full of some interesting characters you don’t want to let go of even at the end which is good because Becoming Marie Antoinette is the first in a planned trilogy.

In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for the Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.

Review – Reign of Madness

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Reign of Madness

By Lynn Cullen

Putnam Adult

ISBN: 9780399157097

4 stars

Juana of Castile is a young girl at the Spanish court secure in the fact she will never inherit the crown and also secure in her parent’s marriage and love for one another. When her world view is suddenly shattered, her romantic ideals disappear — especially those of marriage and her parent’s marriage specifically — and it leaves her with a more pragmatic view of life. She now understands that love and marriage are not one in the same and she beings to see all the more clearly where her life will lead and what it will be like. When Juana’s marriage to Philip I, the Duke of Burgundy, is announced she makes her way to a foreign country with little preparation and an even smaller hope of finding happiness in her marriage and maybe even in her life.

Juana and Philip’s first meeting is odd and while it’s not the most reassuring start, it’s not as bad as Juana imagined. The first few years of their marriage are full of lust, if not necessarily love, and the two young and naive rulers stumble toward a future she never imagined — the crown of Spain. With every relationship in her life eroding — her mother’s silence, her husband’s strange behavior, and courtiers deserting her — Juana struggles to control her jealous feelings for her husband as well as awful thoughts toward a mother who has grown cold. Her children become her only happiness and Philip becomes tortuous holding her at arm’s length, taunting her, playing with her emotions, and doing all he can to make Juana doubt herself.

Philip’s plans to steal the Spanish crown become clear to Juana all too late. When she finally beings to fathom his cruelness, both physically and mentally, her reaction is long overdue. Unfortunately, he has convinced too many of her perceived incompetence and Juana can do nothing to dispel the rumors or fight back. Everyone now sees her as a lovesick, heartbroken, and mad woman incapable of caring for herself and certainly not the Spanish empire.

Juana does not start out as a particularly sympathetic character. She’s dropped, at a young age, all the pretentions of happiness knowing with clarity that her life is not truly her own. It’s because of this attitude you expect her to see Philip for what he is — a childish man who believes he can take all he wants without consequences. His attitude and cruelty toward her are evident rather early on in the marriage but she becomes wrapped up in trying to keep Philip happy that she overlooks clear warnings from family and friends.

What I found most astonishing was her own inability to use the strong women present in her life, preferring to placate her husband to keep his rather unpredictable behavior on an even keel. I wanted to shake her. I wanted her to open her eyes and take control of her life in some way.

Having read another of Cullen’s book, The Creation of Eve, I knew to expect interesting female characters. Even if in this case that female character wasn’t as strong as I would have liked. But this may be a case of me trying to apply my modern view of things to a historically based story. Juana is a smart person but sadly understands what’s happening in her life all too late to change anything. You do feel for her and even at times when I was frustrated with how poorly she was dealing with her husband, I couldn’t walk away. I needed to know how her story would end and what she would do.

Cullen deftly mixes fact and fiction creating a portrait of a woman marked as mad but with a husband who fits the description better. It’s told very effectively, eliciting strong emotions and in the process telling a wonderful story.

In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.

 

Review – Demon Fish: Travels Through the World of Sharks

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Demon Fish: Travels Through the World of Sharks

By Juliet Eilperin

Pantheon Books

ISBN: 978-0-375-42512-7

4 stars

Sharks.  Fish to be feared?  Or, should we be exchanging our fear for awe?  These ancient fish that have evolved for eons are now facing decimation, and in the case of certain species, humans are the ones doing the killing.  As the author points out, sharks are hard to love.  They aren’t soft and fuzzy and they’re saddled with all those teeth that look ready to take a leg off.  How do you make that appealing?  I found Demon Fish a very enjoyable read but I’m one of those people that believes sharks can be lovable or at the very least fascinating.

Traveling to South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong, and Belize, Eilperin meets with shark callers, scientists, shark evangelists, fisherman, environmentalists, restaurateurs selling shark fin soup, and even meets a few sharks up close.  It’s all done in an attempt to understand what draws people to sharks with all their sharp teeth and fins.  Frankly, in some instances, it’s cold hard cash but for others, it’s true admiration.  Each though has a strange reverence for the fish even the ones that make their living off dead sharks.

It’s full of facts: what it takes to track a shark, DNA studies, the cost of shark fins, and shark fishing.  I found myself constantly amazed by the cash amounts assigned to certain parts of a shark’s anatomy.  I also wanted to follow my husband around citing random shark facts at him.  Considering my husband doesn’t share my love of sharks, he would have found this really annoying.  🙂  I would have found it enlightening and fun.

I’ve mentioned this before; I’m a huge fan of the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.  I actually wrote this while watching an episode on great whites so I guess it’s fitting that I’m posting it today.  While this book focused on the economy of sharks — their worth on the open market as well as their scientific and ecological worth — I enjoyed it.  I would have liked more information about specific species (Have you ever heard of a salmon shark or a goblin shark?) but that wasn’t the focus of the book, however, it was still a satisfying read.  If you have an interest in sharks, this is a good addition to your library.

Review – Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

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Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

By Seth Grahame-Smith

Grand Central Publishing

ISBN: 978-0-446-56308-6

3.5 stars

This is the last mashup I plan to read.  Of course, when I make statements like that, something always happens to change my mind.  I don’t particularly dislike this new…what are we calling this anyway?  The reason I say this is because, honestly, I’ve had enough.  Vampires and zombies, it’s been fun but I need to see others.

In Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, we meet Abe.  Abe is a young man with dreams, ambition, and a life on the brink of change when his family comes in contact with a strange and powerful man.  It’s those powers that cause his mother’s early death and his pastoral life becomes hell.  Real hell when he finds out that vile creatures of myth actually exist.  After the painful death of his mother, he vows to rid the world of the pestilence known as the undead.  On a reckless hunt, Abe is injured and comes to meet a man named Henry who teaches him not only about vampires but how to kill them.  Taking the knowledge to heart, Abe begins to kill all the vampires he can becoming one of the most powerful vampire hunters in the U.S.  It’s then that Henry asks even more of him — to become President to help rid the U.S. of vampires that would like to see all humans becomes their eventual slaves.

The story is told by a writer who has been given a secret journal, and provided he tell the true tale of Abraham Lincoln letting no information slip as to the contents of his manuscript and where the information came from, he will finally find fame as a writer.  It’s an interesting concept, BUT, I couldn’t see it.  It was highly readable; in fact, I read it pretty much in one sitting.  The problem is that it wasn’t a complete buy-in for me.  In Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, I was OK with Elizabeth Bennett kicking zombie ass because she’s tough, smart, and can be calculating.  Also, it was funny.  In Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters, I was willing to be taken for a ride and somehow I was all right with Marianne battling giant squids.  This felt lost in translation for me.  I kept reading wondering where the joke was but it was all too somber — Abe having nightmares about his family dying, his own horrific death, the Civil War being fought by vampires.  It needed something funny to make it work but it wasn’t there.  It was all so serious and I couldn’t take it that way.  It was Abraham Lincoln, the man who managed against all odds to keep the Union together, fighting vampires.  There should be a joke in there somewhere!

I can’t say I didn’t like it and I can’t say I liked it.  There’s already a lot out there on this one and I’m going to leave it at that.  If you like vampire books, it’s interesting but not entirely satisfying.  If you like mashups, it’s one more for the stack.

Review – A River Runs Through It

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A River Runs Through It

By Normal Maclean

The University of Chicago Press

ISBN: 978-0-226-50066-9

4.75 stars

I’m the daughter of a fisherman — a bass fisherman to be precise.  Trust me, it matters.  Going into this story, I had few expectations other than I would love it, having loved the movie long before reading this.  Talk about expectations being met.  Not only is this story wonderfully moving but it brought back a lot of memories I have of fishing with my dad and grandpa.  While Norman and his brother Paul are fly fisherman obsessed with the sport and the mechanics of it, the two are easy to relate to and you see how fishing became a metaphor for the lives of these two men.

Norman begins the story by laying out the terms by which his father and brother live.  And by live I mean fish.  Fishing is their life — sad, stressed, and/or happy — they fish.  It transports them to another place where time doesn’t so much matter as long as you get your limit.  Paul is a stubborn soul and Norman admits to not being able to understand him or connect with him on his own level which both frustrates and amazes him.  His life is boring but orderly and while he may not be the happiest of people, Norman knows who and what he is.  Paul is unpredictable, strange, and a wonder with a rod anywhere near water.  Even their father has trouble relating to Paul but everyone stands in awe of him, from the careless way he leads his life to the way he can fish a river.

A River Runs Through It is a short chronicle of Paul’s life and Norman’s struggle to understand it.  It’s also very sad but I won’t go into spoilers here.  You do have to read it to understand the depth he manages to convey with so few words.  It’s astonishing.

I love the role the Montana landscape plays in this story.  It’s a living being especially the river in which they fish and consider almost a reverent part of the family in ways.  Neither brother fears the river although they have a certain respect for it but it’s Paul who seems able to tame it and that’s where Norman’s awe of his brother comes in.  His descriptions of Paul’s fishing abilities are poetic in a way and should be read to be fully appreciated so I won’t try to describe it for you.

There are a few additional stories in the book I have, A River Runs Through It being the only one I’ve read so far.  Since this is a short story and the best known of Maclean’s work, I wanted to include it here as a separate review.  I think it warrants that.  It’s an emotionally moving story that feels much longer than its scant 100 pages.

Review – Magic Slays

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Magic Slays

By Ilona Andrews

Penguin Group

ISBN: 9781101515259

4 stars

This is the fifth book in the Kate Daniel series and if you haven’t read the first four books, starting here would be a mistake.  Not because you’d be lost, Andrews provides enough details for the first-timer and for readers who may have let a bit too much time lapse between books, but because you’d miss all the fun.

Kate, now the Beast Lord Curran’s wife for lack of a better term, she’s living with the Pack and acting as Alpha to Curran.  While she’s still not entirely comfortable with her new position and unsure how to handle her emotions now that she’s allowed herself to admit she loves Curran, she clings dearly to her new business, the only thing she has some control over.  Setup with funds from the Pack, Kate is ready to work for herself rather than the Guild but finding business is proving harder than she imagined.  In an Atlanta full of magical beings, shapeshifters, vampires, witches, and mages, no one is asking for her help.  When her first client walks through the door, the gates of hell open below her feet.

One thing I love about these books — sheer brain candy.  That’s a good thing so don’t be turned off.  The books are short, entertaining, and Andrews has created an Atlanta full of wonderful characters, most of which are the staples of urban fantasy, but they all feel new.  I devour these books and wait patiently for the next installment so I can schedule time on the couch to sit and become absorbed in Kate’s world.  She’s brash, doesn’t think things through, acts crazy at times, and takes constant risks even when the people in her life ask her not too.

I waited for four books to see Kate and Curran get together and no I’m not saying that to ruin anything for you if you haven’t read these books yet.  You see it coming in book one and when it happens, it works.  I know some of you might be saying, “Romance in urban fantasy?”  Don’t worry, it’s not out of control and fits with the story without becoming the story.

If you haven’t read these books yet, try them.  They’re so fun and if you don’t love urban fantasy, you will when you finish these books.  If you want to start at the beginning, the books in order are: Magic Bites, Magic Burns, Magic Strikes, Magic Bleeds, and Magic Slays.

Thoughts on my re-read of Little Women

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Little Women

By Louisa May Alcott

Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.

ISBN: 0-448-06019-1

I’m not going to call this a review because it’s not.  If you want to read more about the book, google it.  I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about what I thought of it on this go around instead.

When I picked this up, I was in a slight reading slump and thought a beloved book from my childhood that I’ve always considered a comfort read would pull me out of it.  By page 40, I was so annoyed with everyone — Meg for bemoaning being poor, Jo for her hyper personality, Beth for all her goodness could only talk about being even better, Amy took me to the heights of annoyance over wanting to be so prim, proper and rich, and even dear Marmee started to rankle.  They were too perfect.  They were too moral.  Everything was a lesson.  Then something changed.  It was that dear old scene where Beth befriends Mr. Laurence and when the little piano arrives, she boldly walks next door to thank him properly for the joy he’s brought her.  The two become a pair content in a friendship that comes of music and Beth’s simple nature.  My annoyances dropped away and once more I felt at home.  It took me a minute though and even when I thought about dropping it, I couldn’t.  I didn’t want to leave the story on a bad note.

Sometimes when re-reading a story that is so loved, there creeps in the need to change it or to imagine it with different endings.  I’ve heard others talk about wanting Jo and Laurie to get together and while I can see that as a possible ending, and at one point in my life I felt it should have been that way, I found this time that I wanted Jo and the Professor to be together instead.  Yes, Jo and Laurie fit together perfectly but they are so alike that it wouldn’t feel satisfying to me now.  Somehow just like Marmee said!  Jo finds someone who appreciates her outbursts and willingness to learn by throwing herself so fully into things that she forgets about the world around her and there’s something lovely in that simple ending for her.  She finds not only love but a partner.

While I still found Jo to be my favorite, Meg and Amy left me wanting this time.  They were still, I don’t know how to put this, but still too preoccupied with the thoughts of others.  Amy does redeem herself but she felt small and slightly inconsequential.  Her romance with Laurie isn’t so much of a romance as a settling for me and maybe that’s why years ago I felt cheated by it and wanted Laurie to be with Jo.  Meg has a way of wrapping herself up so tightly in small things that she forgets there are others in her life, and when this happens in her marriage, I didn’t feel for her.  It was a normal reaction and the lesson from Marmee felt more like preaching and I sort of glossed over it.  Marriage is tough and Meg needed to find that out.  Yes, Marmee let her but it didn’t stop any discussion of the lesson learned.

Then there is the moral; make that morals.  There’s a lesson to be learned by one and all every day, rich or poor.  I felt preached to in the end by people better than me and that frustrated me.  Not because I think I’m a bad person, I think the contrary actually, but this time it weighed heavily.  It was probably my mood considering how busy life has been during the last few weeks but I was looking for comfort and I got a sermon.  I don’t remember it being this way on other reads but somewhere along the way I saw it all differently.  And I’m grateful for that.  I appreciate being able to take a book I’ve read and loved, re-examine it and look at it from a new perspective.  In some ways it became a more satisfying read this time even if I didn’t enjoy it as much.  I still adore this story and nothing in the world will change that but it’s interesting to see how my current life and experiences changes my reading and memories.