Fiction

Review – Queen of the Summer Stars

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This is the second book in Woolley’s Arthurian trilogy following Child of the Northern Spring.

Guinevere and Arthur have been married 10 years, and sadly, are still childless. While she begins falling into a slight despair about their lack of a son, Arthur doesn’t seem bothered by it. He spends his time worrying about Saxon invaders and trying to tie together a realm bent on remaining in pieces. The Round Table is coming together and the Companions are proving to be worthy of Arthur’s trust and willing to see his vision for a unified nation through. Lancelot, at first cold to Guinevere, finally admits his love but the two, out of their love and respect for Arthur, do nothing. Arthur’s sister, Morgan Le Fey, who still wants the crown for her own, has other plans though.

Arthur keeps his secrets from Guinevere so well she doesn’t even understand his family dynamics. I didn’t understand why she didn’t ask him outright; she’s not necessarily meek but she doesn’t seem able to ask questions about Arthur’s past. He was fine with hiding his family and she seemed fine with his secrets, to a point anyway. When she finally finds out about his past, it breaks her heart and understandably. In other Arthurian books I’ve read, Guinevere and Arthur are closer. In this book, they’re close but in a sort of standoffish way which I attributed to the nature of their marriage. It’s an arranged marriage of sorts; they met but it wasn’t necessarily love at first sight. For the record, Guinevere does fall first and much harder than Arthur. They get drawn closer at the end of the book but in some ways I wanted them to find that closeness earlier. I think it would have made for a more enjoyable read. Then again, maybe I’m projecting my own wants on the story instead of accepting this version fully.

It does stay close to the regular Arthurian tale with a few small changes here and there. If you’re purist, it works, if you all right with changes, it works too. I liked it but it did feel like it was lacking something and I can’t place what it is. Maybe it’s that it’s the second in the trilogy and the slowness that sometimes happens with a series found its way in here. I’m hoping that’s it. Either way, I’ll be reading the last book because I don’t seem to be able to leave anything unread that is Arthurian. Guinevere: A Legend in Autumn will find its way to me at some point.

Queen of the Summer Stars

By Persia Woolley

Sourcebooks

ISBN: 9781402246425

3.5 stars

Books & Movies – The Woman in Black

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I read Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black in 2011 and enjoyed it immensely. My review is here. Tension filled and creepy, it’s a great book for a dark winter night. When I heard they would be making a movie, I worried because as with all good books, it could be ruined. After a look at the trailer, I think they may have captured some of what made me love the book.

Oh, yes, and that’s Daniel Radcliffe. Harry Potter no more.

Review – The Twelfth Enchantment

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I kept seeing this book at my bookstore and finally gave in one day when I was feeling a slight reading slump coming on. I’m glad I picked it up that day because when the slump hit, this was a perfect little book to bring me out of it. The characters are sweet, lovingly hateful, and were Austen-esque enough to make me happy.

Lucy Derrick comes from a good family; just a family without money now. She lives with an uncle who would prefer her to disappear and his plan to make this happen is to have her marry a man she doesn’t care for one bit. Her only companion in the house, Mrs. Quince, teases her relentlessly mentally and physically. She begins to accept that her life is going to be full of misery until a man named Lord Byron shows up at her uncle’s home saying she must not marry Mr. Olson. He then vomits pins and passes out. With the help of a new neighbor, Ms. Crawford, who knows something of the magical arts, Lucy helps Lord Byron to recover. Ms. Crawford, seeing a magical spark in Lucy, begins teaching her what she knows and Lucy understands for the first time how her life does not have to be one of misery.

The beginning of this book feels very reminiscent of Mansfield Park. A young woman far from loved ones, harassed and unwanted in the home she lives in, knowing her only way out the house is into another full of the same misery. Mansfield Park is by far not one of my favorite Austen books but this book brought back some lovely memories of it. Mostly of the hateful characters but still good memories.

The magical element is interesting and Lucy’s understanding of it happens quickly. A little too quickly if you ask me and that’s a small quibble I had with this story. She excels; exponentially fast. I’m all for magical education compounding but she’s like the magical god-child. It didn’t ruin the story for me but made me wonder at several points how she became so proficient so quickly.

When I picked this book up I was hoping for a fun and easy read and I got that. It’s entertaining, the characters are fun, some even mean, and you love to see them all make fools of themselves. The setting, England on the cusp of an industrial revolution, is interesting. If you have a thing for Victorian England with a little magic thrown it, take a look at this one.

The Twelfth Enchantment

By David Liss

Random House

ISBN: 978-1-4000-6896-8

4 stars

Review – 11/22/63

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11/22/63

By Stephen King

Scribner

eISBN: 9781451627282

4.75 stars

Yes, Stephen King, the man who writes the scariest characters on earth, wrote a time travel book.

Jake Epping, a recently divorced teacher, lives a quiet life in a small Maine town. His divorce has left him despondent about life in general but he trudges on day after day. One of those days, he’s approached by a friend, Al Templeton, a local restaurant owner who says he has something to show him. Jake meets Al at his restaurant and is surprised to see his friend in the last stages of cancer and struggles to understand when all this happened. Unfortunately, he ends up with more questions than answers when Al shows him the time portal in the back closet of his restaurant. Jake is skeptical but goes through. Al then ropes him into his scheme — he wants Jake to go back in time to kill Lee Harvey Oswald and save John F. Kennedy.

Oh, the tale Mr. King weaves. This book feels part science fiction, part alternate reality, part fantasy. But what it really is is all wonderful. There was a time when King was a comfort read for me. That might sound strange considering he’s known more for horror but I read Carrie, Christine, Salem’s Lot, The Running Man, and The Long Walk over and over again. Each time amazed by the tension, the twists and turns, and I loved being scared by him. Eventually, I moved away from his books, not for lack of books (the man is more than prolific) but because there were other books that caught my attention. Admittedly, I probably burned myself out. A few years ago, I asked a colleague’s husband if I could borrow one of his King books. It was Duma Key and I was once again left wondering why I didn’t read more King.

When 11/22/63 came out everyone fell hard for it. I decided to wait. I wanted to read it but I tend to shy away from bestsellers and give myself space from all the wonderful reviews. And there were many wonderful reviews of this one. Then Twitter happened. Natalie over at Coffee and a Book Chick was talking about how she loved it. I asked if it was really worth it (the answer was a resounding YES) and then decided that since I needed a book for my Thanksgiving travels, I would buy it. What can I say — it was fabulous.

There’s nothing particularly scary about this book, so if you’re judging on that level, walk away. In some respects, that made it feel like I wasn’t reading a King book but I was OK with that outcome because the characters are amazing. I cared so much about what would happen to them and I came very close to tears at the end. I didn’t want it to end.

It was a rush of a story too. While it’s slow in the middle and you start wondering what if anything Jake is going to do about Oswald, you’re too caught up in his alternate life to care. It’s the life he was looking for and you’re so glad to see him finally find it that you start hoping that he won’t go through with it so he can continue with what he found.

This was a book I fell for hard. It also made me thankful that King is an author with many tomes to his name. While I can’t recreate this reading, I can revel in his other books.

Believe the hype on this one. It is that good.

Review – The Magician King

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The Magician King

By Lev Grossman

Viking

ISBN: 9780670022311

3 stars

I’m torn over this review and fully admit to putting off writing it because I don’t know what I want to say about it. Did I like it? Sort of. Would I read it again? Probably not. The more I thought about it the more frustrated I became with the whole book and its predecessor, The Magicians. So here goes my attempt at some thoughts.

Quentin is now in Fillory and a full king at that along with Eilot, Janet, and Julia. But he’s bored. So bored he decides to travel to the Outer Islands of Fillory to collect, of all things, back taxes. He ends up inadvertently on a quest for the seven keys. Using the first, he and Julie, who accompanied him on the unplanned trip, end up back in the real world. The two search for a way back to Fillory both knowing they have absolutely no desire to spend any time in reality — Fillory is their reality now.

OK, first, back taxes?! This is how a quest starts?! I just, I don’t know, I wanted something less mundane and every day. Taxes are not fantasy. Beyond that I was sort of bored and annoyed. Quentin is still whiny, now he’s bored and whiny. Eliot, not sure what I thought of him, mostly I just didn’t; Janet is pretty well non-existent and I was fine with that. And then there’s Julia. We find out all about Julia and how she learned magic and it’s fascinating. It was dark, disturbing, and sad. I was right there going along with her story, having to put up with Quentin to get to Julia’s story, and then we came to the end of her story and I said out loud, “What? You went there!” and that’s when I decided to muddle through and be done with it.

I was excited for this book but sadly that excitement barely got me though. There’s much to like and many people do indeed like this book so ignore if you’re one of them. For me, this one didn’t do it.

I went back to see how I rated the first book and it was fairly high, a 4 out of 5. I remember liking it at the time too but with a few quibbles. Then, the more I thought about it the less I liked it. These thoughts may have clouded my judgment of this book.

Read it? Feel differently? Wrote a review of it? Let me know, I’m happy to link to a review that’s a completely different take than mine.

Review – A Visit from the Goon Squad

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A Visit from the Goon Squad

By Jennifer Egan

Random House

ISBN: 97803074 77477

5 stars

There are books you buy because you read so many fabulous reviews that you must, absolutely must, have it as part of your personal library. Sometimes you go to a book festival and hear an author speak and you’re convinced that you must, absolutely must, own the book. You’ve been sold. You buy the book. And then you start to wonder if it will live up to the expectations, which are now so high that you consider taking the book back to the store and finding out if it would be possible to exchange it for something else. You don’t want to be disappointed. You decide to read it anyway and you’re surprised. Surprised that you love it; surprised that it lived up to your mighty expectations.

In the bathroom of a hotel in New York City, Sasha is doing her best to not steal a wallet peeking slightly out of a woman’s purse. She doesn’t want to steal it, but she has to. She can’t explain it, not even to her therapist, stealing is something she must do. And it has to be personal, new things don’t have the same effect on her. She takes it and then just as the wallet peeking out of the purse, we peek into her life. We do this by way of disjointed introductions to all the people and places that have passed through her life. Her therapist, her boss — Bennie Salazar, a music industry executive with too many problems of his own — ex-boyfriends, college friends, and family members.

This is one of those books that I will admit upfront that I will not be able to describe adequately so I won’t even try. It’s a meandering book. You’re drawn in and out of people’s lives and in some cases you’re not even sure until several paragraphs into the chapter why exactly this person has appeared. What’s amazing about it is that even in those moments when you’re wondering who this person is and why you should care about them, you begin to see the invisible strings that tie everyone together. They appear out of nowhere and this author’s ability to show, in raw details, the characters’ problems is amazing. And the writing; the writing is startling. Yes, there is a reason Jennifer Egan won a Pulitzer Prize. Yes, she deserves it.

A Visit from the Goon Squad took me several days to read and it’s not a long book; 340 pages total. I took my time wanting to savor each and every word. I went back a few times to re-read passages. I wanted to see how she said so much with so few words. The writing felt sparse to me at first and then I began to realize that even though she didn’t describe things in a widely epic fashion, I saw every single detail. I saw Sasha lift that wallet so delicately out of the purse and slip it into hers. I saw the expression on Bennie Salazar’s face when his son puts the gold flakes on his tongue and the felt the exhilaration his son felt. There’s something about her writing that is so extraordinary that I found myself reading slower and slower as I got to the end.

I’ve never read a book before that included one chapter that was an entire PowerPoint presentation. A Visit from the Goon Squad is officially that book and may retain that title for many years to come. What I thought most interesting about this chapter was that in some ways it was the most telling and sad chapter of the entire book. So poignant and strange at the same time I forgot I was reading slides and it read as a young girl’s journal, as it was intended.

I’m sure this one will make it on my best of 2011 list (it did). It was just that good. Sad, funny, confusing, and beautiful; much like life.

Review – The Castle of Wolfenbach

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The Castle of Wolfenbach

By Eliza Parsons

ISBN: 2940013320802

3 stars

I picked up The Castle of Wolfenbach after Chris at Chrisbookarama reviewed it. She described it as essentially being so bad it was good. I downloaded it to my Nook, and honestly, I had a good time with it. I’ve never read a book with so much fainting and weeping before and all of it amused me.

Matilda Weimer lives a quiet life at her uncle’s home in Germany. Both parents are dead and she relies on her uncle for everything. After overhearing a conversation between her uncle and the housekeeper that involves plans for her, she convinces another servant, Albert, to runaway with her. They end up seeking shelter at the Castle of Wolfenbach while trying to figure out what to do. The caretakers of the castle, Joseph and Berta, agree to put them up but warn that the castle is haunted. Matilda ignores their pleas, and the supposed haunting, and finds out the secret of the castle — the Countess of Wolfenbach is very much alive and confined to the upper halls by a secret pledge she cannot reveal. The Countess’s story is as sad as Matilda’s and the two scheme to send Matilda to the Countess’s sister in France. Once there, Matilda befriends the Countess’s sister, the Marchioness, and finds herself in a safe place until her uncle shows up and lays claim to her. This sets in motion a new series of events involving a nunnery, a chase across the sea, pirates, revealed secrets, unrequited love, and finally marriage.

There are so many twists and turns in this book at one point I started laughing out loud and wondered how much more I could take and then got right back to it realizing how much fun I was having thinking about the next crazy antic. Almost every woman in this story is aggrieved, heartbroken, or hiding. Poor Matilda among the worst of them too — she’s got an uncle who has sick plans for her, she has no family members alive (that she knows of), no love interest, views herself as sad and lonely, cries at the drop of a hat, and she’s on the run with no money. Every one she meets has sympathy for her and luckily for her they all want to help and have the money and or mean to offer help. It’s a ridiculous story though and here’s why (and no it’s not the addition of pirates although that contributed) — no one, and I mean no one, can have this amount of drama and luck at the same time without being in a gothic novel. How do you know when you’re reading a gothic novel? Characters faint then weep, and then faint some more and then someone comes to their rescue. And yes, that person can be a pirate who has seen the light and plans to leave the death and destruction of the waves behind.

OK, there’s a reason why Jane Austen pokes fun at these stories. This one along with The Mysteries of Udolpho are mentioned in Northanger Abbey and while two of the characters revere the books with a sense of awe, others deride them for even bothering to read them. Austen pans the books and rightly so but you can see how someone would get hooked on one. Yes, this one was laugh out loud funny at times and ridiculous at points but fun. I’ve had The Mysteries of Udolpho on my Nook for a while now and I feel like I need to get to it. I’ve heard better things about that one and now that a toe has been dipped in the Gothic novel pool, I may be willing to add a whole foot.

Review – The Queen’s Rival: In the Court of Henry VIII

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The Queen’s Rival: In the Court of Henry VIII

By Diane Haeger

Penguin Group

ISBN: 9781101478905

3.5 stars

I can’t pinpoint the moment I had my fill of Tudor stories but it occurred sometime in 2011. Yes, I lasted longer than most. I won’t pretend this will be my last either. Earlier this year I read a non-fiction book on Henry VIII and thought that would be my last but I forgot I had downloaded this to my Nook and found myself reading it when I needed something comforting — this is a setting I know well. I was out of town on a long business trip and I turned to it.

Elizabeth (Bess) Blount is a beautiful and naïve girl who lands a position in Queen Katherine’s household. This new position puts her directly in front of Henry VIII. Amazed by the opulence of the Court and especially by the King himself, she finds herself in a precarious situation. She can become the mistress to the King she believes she loves and in the process ruin her reputation and position with the Queen and possibly bring the downfall of her family. She picks Henry and gives him something he’s been wanting for years, a son.

While nothing about this story felt new, if you read enough books set in Tudor England nothing feels new, but it was well written and interesting. Parts were slow and at other times it felt as if large sections of Bess’s life were left out. We go from seeing her as a 14 year-old, and it feels as if only a few months worth of time, then she’s the King’s mistress and shortly after pregnant with his child. She finds a life outside of Court, and it’s a happy one at that, but it goes by so fast and I wondered when she turned 30. Besides that small quibble, it was good. A solid read.

I was wondering why I purchased this one considering I thought I was done with the Tudors and as it turns out it was for a challenge. So, now it appears I’m finished with The Royal Mistress Challenge. I ended on a good note then.