Historical FanFiction

“It made him vividly aware that nothing was for ever; that pain had its tides, its pauses.” Truth.

1.14 Longbourn

I loved this book.  Reading it with my mom really helped me to get through and stick with it. making it the quickest I have finished anything in months.  And maybe that’s why I loved it so much – I really needed to read again. 

It is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice through the eyes of the downstairs help – basically a fancy fanfiction that falls into all the rage of the recent Downton fad.

I admit that the first third of the book felt like a pretty simple retelling:  We have a maid who likes two men, one who would be the “Wickham” and one who would be the “Darcy”, and so she must make the choice to stay in service or follow her dreams to travel and live unencumbered.  But then the story shifted away from all my assumptions and became a wonderfully heartfelt story about sacrifice and true family.  The additional details to the Pride and Prejudice characters were seamless and the two very different worlds of characters all living in Longbourn seemed perfectly placed and interestingly juxtaposed.  For all the pomp and circumstance of P & P you never really slow down to think of how all those balls and dinners are put together and it was nice to see that being slogged down by all those details didn’t make the characters doing them any less interesting, in many cases they were the better by far. 

If anything, this story was a bit harsh on our dear Bennets, but isn’t that the way life works?  No one really sees anything the same way.  Hence, fanfiction.  And boy oh boy, is the publishing world taking notice.

Summer Reading

“What a thing to go through life without books.”  Truth

What is it about summer?  You think there is nothing to do but be hot and thus lounge by the pool and read, right?  That is what I thought I was in store for this summer, but no… I had to move, and visit family, and socialize.  Not much reading going on, and so I have managed to finish a whooping six books this summer.  Of course, it doesn’t help that the last two were kind of stinkers and so I was left wanting to do anything other than reading.

21.13 Etiquette & Espionage

Great Cover! Great Title! Great Blurb!  Not such a great book. 

This YA should have sucked me in and lasted about two days - a perfect summer read – instead it became a total chore for two weeks.  It reminded me of summer reading for school, at times honestly doing nothing was more entertaining than reading some of that dredge.  The main character is interesting and the school seems wonderful but I felt like I should have cared much more about it all by the end of book one.  We will just have to see how the series progresses.

20.13 Ratlines

This was a dude book disguised as historical fiction.  There was far too little history, and far too many fisticuffs and too much torture and killing.  Blah.  Not good.

As I said, it was a sad summer reading season, but right now I am going to pick up a book based on the Luther series, and on September 3^rd BBC will start showing Series Three.  So summer be damned! Bring on fall, Luther, and, let’s not forget, Alice.  Yippee!!!

The Rumor Mill

“I suppose villainy, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.” Truth.

10.13 The Daughter of Time

Last month, archeologists found the skeleton of Richard III in a carpark in Leicester.  My first thought was why the hell are we spending money digging up carparks, and my second thought was The Daughter of Time.  Or simply put:  The Truth.

There were many rumors about King Richard addressed in Daughter of Time, and the discovery of his body has put a few to rest and confirmed another:

Withered arm – No evidence

Hunchback – Evidence of severe scoliosis, so not a hunch per say but he certainly would have appeared hunched over.

Born with full set of teeth – No evidence

His kingdom for a horse – Lots of carpark jokes

But one rumor remains.  Was he a murderer of boys?

The portrait Grant looks at in the book.

The facial reconstruction of his skull.

Daughter of Time sets out to answer that question; trying to consider the facts of history as opposed to the facts claimed by historians and other educated men of the time.  The book has a clear opinion that I won’t spoil here, but what I really noticed is how much we love a mystery that cannot be solved.  We go back again and again even though a solution can never be truly discovered. Why do we still wonder about Richard and the boys in the Tower when so many other rulers have been overtly awful?  Why are we still trying to unmask Jack the Ripper when so many horrible murderers, with many more victims, are found out and imprisoned? Where is Jimmy Hoffa and why do we care?  I don’t think it is because we actually want to know the answer, I think it is because we love to gossip and spread rumors, the more sordid the better.  Be damned the truth.

Should Have Thrown

“A sympathetic heroine, she finds, is almost as good as a friend of flesh and blood.” Truth.

53.12 the Crimson Petal and the White

 Waste. Of. Time.

I heard about the mini series based on this book so thought I would read it before watching, now I don’t even want to watch it, because this was a horrible book. Boring characters (He is a perfumer, seriously?  Of all the professions...), unoriginal plot (Victorian era wife who is dying of strange illness leaves a man who just needs some love), no development (When you finally get to the end – FINALLY!!! - everyone is still a jerk or dead). And the ending… He literally stopped writing. Honestly, it was a really poor excuse for an author who clearly didn’t know how to make anything meaningful out of this 900-page mess.

I knew early on I should give up on this one, but I never do that. I think I need to start. The reality is that I didn’t when I made this decision to never give up I read much less and now that I read more, and am more aware of what I like, I need to start giving up.  The one thing I took away from this book was the quote, and I love the quote, I just wish it had been true of this book.

For My Mom

When people see my son they always say he looks exactly like his dad, and he does.  No one ever says he looks like me, and no one ever says I look like my parents. Is this one of natures weird things?  Do boys look like their dads for some hormonal response while girls are left to fill the in between? Anyway, on a recent trip home I found a picture of my mom that I had never seen before and for the first time all the genes fell in to place. 

First, she looks like me. Second, I look like Darren. Third, she is reading and holding baby me.  Holding a baby and reading may be the happiest I have ever been in my life, and she looks just as happy.  I don’t have many pictures of myself during that time because I was busy - you know – holding the baby and reading, but I did find one and when I put the pictures side by side I smile. *Stupid computer won't let me put them side by side, but you get the point.

We look so much alike, except she is clearly a much snappier dresser than my hobo self, and we look so happy.  My mom and me, as mothers.  It makes me feel all the feelings.  It is hard being a mother and it is hard being a daughter, but it is also marvelous.

After staring at the picture for a bit I delved straight into figuring out what book she was reading.  She was pretty sure her mother had given it to her and I found the cover in a matter of minutes thanks to the wonders of the interwebs. Amazon had a used copy for one penny – I mean, I know some of you think Amazon is the devil but ONE PENNY! – I ordered it, read it, and here is what I thought:

“I used to wonder how much of life was predestined.” Truth.

 

50.12 The House of a Thousand Candles

The book started out like Downton Abby meets Rebecca, with the shadowy house, a new owner who is also a stranger, the downstairs help gossiping and longing for the old days. It then turned into more of a romance with a tinge of mystery that all gets wrapped up nicely like a bow in the end. Much of the plot seemed to revolve around little tidbits of Chinese history and culture that the author was proud of sharing but there was also: adultery, consumption, spinal cord injuries, ancient Chinese relics, hidden rooms, hallucinations, and, of course, muuuuuurder. It was fun and escapist.  Quite perfect for so many reasons.  Then and now.

It reminded me of the other books my mother has given me when she knows that I simply need a safe place to fall. I guess her mother knew the same thing about her. We are both very lucky for that.  And now, so is my son.

The Quote Maker

“Catnapping is a skill everyone should have.” Truth.

40.12 Angelmaker

I love little things. I marvel over the hands that can take such small items and make them function. How can they see and touch with such delicacy? From doll house furniture to mini erasers to jewelry, I have had this fascination for as long as I can remember. So immediately upon meeting Joe in his clock repair shop, I was in love.

What a book!  It is impossible to describe: part steam punk, part spy versus spy, part good versus evil.  All fun!  The names, the devices, the amazing female characters - those “woman of consequence” - and the quotes.  My god the quotes!  I have never found so may funny, thoughtful quotes that I had to stop and read twice all in one place.  

“Particularly now, when thirty years of age is visible in his rear-view mirror and forty glowers at him from down the road, now that his skin heals a little more slowly than it used to from solder burns and nicks and pinks, and his stomach is less a washboard and more a comfy if solid bench.” Page 6

“Glass mirrors are green, and make your image look sick and sad.  He doesn’t want to be the person he sees reflected in a glass mirror.” Page 7

“He tries no to reflect on the nature of a life whose high point is an adversarial relationship with an entity possessing the same approximate reasoning and emotional alertness as a milk bottle.” Speaking of a cat on Page 9

“Bastion’s owner is called Edie Banister, and she is very small, and very wiry, and apparently goes back slightly further than the British Museum.” Page 13

“His cheeks are wide and fatty, so that, if Mr. Cummerbund were a deer or a halibut, they would excite pleasurable anticipation in those fond of rich foods.” Page 21.

“He considers himself the wrong side of thirty-five and no closer to being who he wanted to be, if he ever knew who that was.” Page 87

“It makes the world better, just by being. Isn't that wonderful?” Page 95

“It would be very nice if someone would hug him, just for a minute.” Page 178

Beautiful little pieces of art aren't they? Well done Mr. Harkaway.

Hidden Past

“Of all the times I could ever have used a glass of whiskey.” After the month I have had, this is a big TRUTH.

38.12 Hide Me Among the Graves

The whole time I read this book I felt out of sorts.  Was it because I was trying to process unbelievable things in my personal life?  Because I started it on a plane in a haze of exhaustion and anxiety?  Because I read a few pages here and there before really digging in? Honestly, I still can’t figure it out.  It is well written, with beautifully described atmosphere, but somehow I kept thinking I had missed something early on.  Turns out I did – the first book!  This is a sequel and I had no idea until after I finished it and scanned some other reviews of people saying that you HAD to read the first book first.  Really wish I had known that…

The first book, The Stress of Her Regard, was originally published in 1989 and reprinted in 2008.  Oddly, it is not mentioned on the copy of Hide Me, even though the cover mentions two of his other books and his author bio lists an additional four.  I first heard about this book on NPR and they never mentioned this either, which is odd since our hero is the son of the two main protagonists of the first book.  So, it turns out I had in fact missed something and it effected my reading a lot.  Anyway, back to this book.

So what makes the great poets great? Vampirism of course!

This Victorian London is a bit steampunk and real literary figures play many of the characters. While I concede that this may be a new take on a trend, I have recently seen it done better in Anno Dracula and so the whole thing was felt repetitive.  But the most frustrating part was that the bad guys here are easily vanquished and the good guys make it really hard not to hate them for being so stupid.  The build up to action is done well but the end result fizzles.  Our characters include the real life actions of John Polidori, the Rosetti siblings, and Algernon Swineburne, but the only character I cared for was Edward Trelawney.  I kept hoping the story would focused more on him and how he became what he was – but wait, was that in the first book and so I just missed it?  Don’t know, didn't know it existed until I was done with this one, but I am not bitter.

Maybe you really do need to read the first book to understand all the minute of the second or maybe all of those others factors led to me not connecting to the story. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood, but for as long as I have been writing reviews and doing this blog I have never had such a hard time figuring out something to say about a book; I couldn’t even come up with a quote.  It isn’t that I didn’t like it, or that I did, I just didn’t engage with it at all which leaves me feeling even more out of sorts than ever.

The Truth Will Out

“People are complicated. There is so much more to everyone than you realize.”  Truth.

37.12 Code Name Verity

It took me three days to read the first 70 pages of this book but only one day to read the last 260. The book is written from one point of view and then the other, and really to understand the first you have to read the second and I am not sold that that is a great strategy especially for a YA book. Nonetheless, I liked it but I really thought I would love it.

Two young British women, a spy and a pilot, crash land in France in October of 1943. Each of their stories is recorded as well as the story of how each got to this point. They are strong and confident. Smart and loyal. But this is war time, and war is ugly.

I liked both girls but the disjointed writing of the first half of the book made me feel at arms length from them instead of pulling me in to their story. I never felt emotionally involved with either of them. I think the unraveling, yet connecting, of both stories in the second half is very well done but maybe some of it needed to come sooner.  I did like that the connections were left to the reader to make, doled out a bit at a time, instead of being thrown at you like you aren’t smart enough to figure things out.  It is a very well written and compelling story without being so overtly harsh and devastating that it will probably be perfect for some younger readers who are not as interested in historical fiction. I just hope they stick with it.

A Makeover

“What a cold, dark, silence perfection would be.” Truth.

33.12 Anno Dracula

Anno Dracula - AKA Jack The Ripper, Vampire Slayer or Sherlock and the Silver Knife or Dr Jekyll and... Hopefully you get my point - is a wicked smart, and wicked fun, mash-up of all these great characters of Victorian life and literature in a London where men and vampires are attempting to co-exist.

I love a smart book that straight up expects its reader to be smart too, and here all the historical and literary references make the book much more fun to read; but if a reader didn’t recognize them they wouldn’t be left out of understanding the story, and I very much love honoring people for being well read without chastising others.

Queen Victoria has married Count Dracula, and many are finding themselves faced with the decision to turn or not.  Out of hiding come the ancients while the rampant spread of vampirism seems to have taken hold most tightly in the areas of the less fortunate, Whitechapel to be specific.  There is political unrest, as those looking for power have to decide if power can be sustained for an eternity or a lifetime, and to make matters worse, there is a murderer on the loose.  He is killing women, vampire women, with a silver knife and will come to be known as Jack the Ripper. See, fun huh?  And it is fun, if anything maybe a bit too much.  In the end, I felt like the development of our two main characters, a hero and a heroine, faltered so that every clever character could be included.  I want to know more about both of them, and frankly thought I would.  This book is ripe for a sequel and it looks like there is another book that takes place in 1918 and is clearly related but I can’t quite tell how much.  I know I often rage about the number of series in publishing lately, but this is one I could have gotten behind.

On a side note, book covers are incredibly important in swaying me towards a book or not. I will buy a book solely based on its cover. I will purposely put off buying a book if a different editions cover is markedly better.  I HATE when original covers are replaced by pictures from the movie. When I sought out this book after reading a recommendation I really liked the current cover:

But the copy I got from the library has this cover:

I mean Jesus, there is purple lace... Ugh, it’s a tragedy of bad taste.  Thank goodness I had already prejudged this book by its alternate cover.

Off With Her... Gallbladder???

“The things you think are the disasters in your life are not disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around: out of every ditch, a path, if you can only see it.” Truth.

32.12 Bringing Up The Bodies

I could not wait for this book to come out.  I pre-ordered it in January and spent a few days last week rereading the last chapters of Wolf Hall to prepare.  I actually found the rereading wasn’t needed as the intensity of this new look at Thomas Cromwell really stayed with me. I loved the slight ways that his true character slipped through, and the way he seemed prepared for Jane Seymour even before Henry was.  I simply couldn’t wait to read more even though the facts of the history are well known. In anticipation of starting, I set aside all of Tuesday morning to read, then I woke up in the worst pain of my life.  A trip to the ER, two hospitals, and 24-hours later, my gallbladder was gone and I was doped up on pain pills.  So doped up that I couldn’t stay awake, let alone read.  UGH!!! Back off real life drama! Luckily, I could stare at the television endlessly as BBC America was airing a marathon of The Tudors, so I was all caught up on the drama by the time the haze lifted and I finally got to reading.

Damn... Thank god for Divorce Court right?  I used to think the people on that show were crazy, but I think the Tudors have them beat. Henry thinks everyone is out to get him - can you imagine if there had been tapes a-lá-Nixon? - but all that really matters is if Henry is out to get you. As Bringing Up the Bodies opens Henry is already over Anne. Already wondering what SHE did to make him marry her. Already decided to marry Jane next. Feeling he is the only one who is ever wronged.  Making it clear he wants Cromwell to get ‘er done.  And our Cromwell does love a little project!

Mantel still  uses the oddly placed pronoun he, and even though I was prepared for it since reading Wolf Hall I still found it jarring and noticed myself stopping to look back and make sure I was clear about which “he” he was.  This time Mantel added things like, “He, Cromwell, …” to make things more clear but I found the additions also kind of clunky. I do think overall the pronoun use has the effect of making the writing feel more personal without being privy to every one of his thoughts and actions, but I really hate that it takes me out of the story.

This book is shorter and a bit more tight than Wolf Hall, but it also much more historical than personal and so feels a bit more stale, but Cromwell’s final interrogation of the four “bodies” is magnificent. So awful really. So clearly set on course for some time as a way to honor his mentor Cardinal Wolsey. It is one of my greatest fears to be accused of something in such a way that no matter what you do or say you are doomed, and you feel the walls closing in on these characters in a taught and horrifying way. The sheer power of accusation to ruin a life is terrifying, and because of this obvious targeting Cromwell is not as sympathetic a character as he was in Wolf Hall, this time it is Anne’s turn.  We see very little of her, but we hear a lot, and there is absolutely no one on her side.  This book is much less about religion and much more about politics and power, and when that power shifts people see it coming and will do anything they can to save themselves. It seems rather timely actually.

Concentration

15.12 Mistress of the Art of Death

For the past three months I have been anxiously awaiting our vacation in Cancun.  Seeing as how my honeymoon (over ten years ago!) was my last vacation, it had been awhile. I had lots of time to plan, probably too much.  I had to get everything ready for my parents to take care of our child and I had to figure out how to take care of only myself for a week.  My main concern was reading material.  Didn’t want too much, certainly not too little, and I wanted to have stuff I was sure to love.  A dear friend sent me a copy of Mistress almost a year ago and I socked it away for just such a time.

So there I was: free of child, free of housekeeping and cooking duties, free of anything but sitting by a pool and reading.  And I COULDN’T FUCKING DO IT!!!  My mind literally would not settle down, and I could absolutely not concentrate on reading.  I was very frustrated, which only made it all worse.  I would read about ten pages and realize I had absolutely no idea what happened.  I got to the reveal of the murder mystery and couldn’t even remember who the character was.  SO FRUSTRATING! 

So, I read this, but I almost wish I had left it to read at home as an escape from the chaos swirling around me.  I loved the main character (See, no idea what her name was) and all of the secondary characters around her; although I did get a bit frustrated at how mushy she got around her love interest.  And I always love books set during this time period.  So it should have meant all kinds of win for me, but then again, this was me, and generally speaking for me things that should be all kinds of win are generally all kinds of fail.  Next vacation I will just pick something up at the airport!

Personal History

8.12 Buddha in the Attic

I read this in less than 24 hours and would challenge anyone to not do the same.  But I imagine that it would be challenging for a lot of people because once again Otsuka has played with the narrative voice to create a really original way of presenting history.  There are no individual characters and things just happen, kind of like life.  I am sure there are readers who will say it is just a list of things: this happened to her, and this happened to her, but my god it is so much more.  It is about women and mothers, family and livelihood, neighbors and betrayal.  It is an amazingly powerful little book.

I used When The Emperor was Divine when teaching American Studies, and found that it filled in a gaping hole of our WWII studies: what was happening in this country to our own citizens.  Emperor used alternating points of view to tell the story of fear in California and the ultimate internment of the Japanese during the war.  Buddha goes further back in history and uses a collective voice to show the experiences of young women (mail-order brides (?)) coming to San Francisco to be married and have a better life at the beginning of the 1900s.  It shows how they created lives and families, and it shows how ultimately fear destroyed everything they had worked for.

Frankly, I wish I had the last chapter of Buddha to use when I was teaching Emperor.  It is the only time we see the view of the Americans and is titled, The Disappearance.  It is scary how little responsibility is taken, how quickly things are forgotten, how blasé the adults are and how truly affected the children are.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

4.12 Company of Liars

I would say that the biggest liar here is the book itself.  The back flap describes it as, “A retelling of The Canterbury Tales.” Umm, what??? Oh because we are in England, and the Plague is spreading, and people are traveling.  Same thing right?  Ugh…  Why do publishers do that?  Especially a description like that!  As if most readers are searching for another dose of Chaucer like they seem to so desperately need another lovelorn vampire.  My bet is that you lost more readers than you gained with that one folks.  Plus, the readers you did get are annoyed because you lied. 

The Canterbury Tales is full of richly developed characters that are enduring; this book has a collection of characters that are never really hashed out.  They are wet a lot, and mad a lot, and they cook a lot, but I never cared much for any of them.  Is this because they are liars?  No, it is because they are one dimensional and boring.  No one actually changes over the story, just his or her circumstances. I loved the historical information, and the way the author showed the slow dismantling of society when faced with an unbiased terror like the Plague.  To see it spread along with its created prejudice and superstitions was actually fascinating; but that historical information gave way to a murder mystery that I just wanted to be over.  The big twist came too late and with far too little explanation, and the ending was decidedly rushed, although I didn’t hate it.  I am sure a lot of people did but I think by the time I got there the story had nowhere left to go anyway.

Past and Present

1.12 - 11/22/63

This is about a man who goes back in time to save JFK from assassination, but it is really about life and love. It is about the simple decisions we make each day and how there is always another choice. So what happens if one of those choices changes?

Isn't this what we think about every day?  What if I had done that?  What if I had gone there?  Why do we smile as we walk by some people and yet blindly walk by others? Why is it always the good old days and the grass is greener?  We always want to know, but do we really.

I liked this book a lot; I loved seeing our narrator teach, I loved seeing people be kind to one another,  I loved the dancing. It isn't a perfect book, but it is what a perfect book should be: an escape, a character study, and a lesson that stays with you and makes you think about it in relation to your own life.  Don't read it to learn about Kennedy because you won't, read it to remember that you have an effect on people and should go out of your way to do that right.

The YA Conundrum

45. Kindred

This book embodies a lot of the issues I have with YA books.  So many times you read them and just wish the author would go there, that they would push it.  Instead they seem to hold back in an attempt to save the audience from true exposure.  Is this because so many parents are ridiculous enough to ban books, so authors air on the side of caution?  The books are good, the plots are good, but ultimately I read them and I feel robbed of the emotional experience that is so amazing about literature.  And it ticks me off.

Here we have a 26 year-old woman living in 1976 California, who literally disappears and reappears in antebellum Maryland.  She saves a boy from drowning, has a gun pulled on her, and is suddenly back home.  This continues for her, as she becomes this boy's guardian angle of sorts.  I can see this being a great book to use in a 6th or 7th grade class.  The time travel will draw them in and the realities of slavery are well described, but in the end there is no emotional payout - doesn't that sound impossible?  Could there be a better set up for a really gut wrenching read?  I know, and that is why I was disappointed.

The character development is just not there.  Granted there is a lot going on and we also like to think that thick books scare off kids so we don't want to go over 300 pages.  But I don't understand Dana or what drives her.  I don't understand why she loves her husband or why she cares for Rufus.  I understand that she needs to save him, but does that mean she needs to like him?  If I knew and cared about her more the whole book would have been so much more effective.  But it just kind of glances the surface of everything instead of really diving in.  Why???

Modern Dickens

44. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

I couldn’t help thinking about Dickens (and I am certainly not the first) as I read this book because I felt that there were so many similarities between the story structure and his works, the least of which was the length, but let’s start there.

At almost 800 pages, I think this book is too long, but at the same time if I had any real complaints about the plot it wasn’t that it needed editing.  In fact, there were many plot lines that I wish had been taken further.  In fact, this would have been a perfect serial.  The characters were all really well developed and had their own interesting stories, and the plot was more of a life story with many small plot climaxes as opposed to one overriding big bang climax.  I really think that if I had read the book a section at a time I may have enjoyed it more.  If I had put the book aside and come back to it later I am sure I would not have forgotten anything about the characters but what I may have benefited from was a rest from the story in a way that would have made it more interesting instead of more of a drudgery.  Basically, I would have loved to read each section in the New Yorker instead of in a huge block of very heavy book (not to mention it was a library book with an expiration date!).

The thing I really liked about the characters was that you never really had a hold on who was good and who was bad, because everyone was a little of both; expect for one truly good guy.  Most importantly, they are developed so you feel like you really know every character and that each one is different from the others and critical to the story in their own way.  Plus, we are talking about a book about magic and all of the characters were down with that.  There wasn’t a lot of, “This is unbelievable,” it just was.  Although the people who say this book is like Harry Potter for adults are kind of crazy.  The magic here is about war and power but it is also very dark.

The over all atmosphere of the book was really well developed as well.  The chapters switch back and forth to describe what is going on with different groups of characters and based on the descriptions of the surroundings you could tell the shifts in their circumstances from good to dire.  I wanted to be in Norrell’s library, to walk on the fairy roads, and maybe even dance a bit in Lost-Hope.

I love Dickens and in many ways I loved this book. I smiled as I turned the last page, but I was glad to see it end.  I can’t believe they haven’t made it into a movie yet.

Real Life Sherlock

40. Arthur and George

This is another in the new trend of historical novels that are well researched but read more like fiction, and this had many of the same issues that I have found in the others.  The research is great but the endgame is lacking.

It follows the true story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's crusade to clear the name of George Edjali who served three years in prison for the mutilation of a pony. After the death of Arthur's wife he came across a letter and clippings sent to him from Edjali chronicling the crime and asking for his help in clearing his name so that he could go back to work as a solicitor.  Doyle seems to take on the characteristics of his own Holmes to "solve" the crime. 

I was not familiar with the case so all of that information was very interesting to read but the truth is if you are looking for it to all come together in a sort of tidy conclusion, this isn't the story for you.  I also felt that the story took too long to really get to the meat of things; this is an issue I tend to have with a of these books.  Sometimes the research gets in the way of the story.  I also felt that the characters lacked a bit of depth.

What The Hell?

30.  The Postmistress

The description of this book reads:

In 1940, Iris James is the postmistress in coastal Franklin, Massachusetts. Iris knows more about the townspeople than she will ever say, and believes her job is to deliver secrets. Yet one day she does the unthinkable: slips a letter into her pocket, reads it, and doesn't deliver it.

Meanwhile, Frankie Bard broadcasts from overseas with Edward R. Murrow. Her dispatches beg listeners to pay heed as the Nazis bomb London nightly. Most of the townspeople of Franklin think the war can't touch them. But both Iris and Frankie know better...

And my issues begin:

- Iris James, postmistress insists on being called the postmaster throughout the entire book, so why is this the title?
- "coastal Franklin, Massachusetts", is in fact not coastal at all.
- "believes her job is to deliver secrets".  She never once says this, or thinks this. In fact, it seems that she thinks her job is boring.
- And our thrilling plot device: "she does the unthinkable: slips a letter into her pocket, reads it, and doesn't deliver it." Too bad that NEVER EVEN HAPPENS!!!  She is asked to put a letter aside and delivers it as promised, without ever opening it!!!  Who the hell is getting paid to write these descriptions and why isn't it me!!!
- "Her dispatches beg listeners to pay heed as the Nazis bomb London nightly." Umm, not really.  They are somewhat interesting stories of life in the Blitz but she never asks anyone to pay heed.

My review of this book is that it is horrible. The plot is bad, the characters are undeveloped and uninteresting.  And overall is was rather depressing and trite.  But more than all of that, the people who are trying to sell it don't even seem to know what it is about.  I have read books expecting one thing and getting another but this book was simply NOT what is said it would be.

Hit the Mark!

26. Through The Glass Darkly

This is the 26 book mark!  In an earlier post I mentioned the blog of people trying to read 26 books in the span of a year and wondered what number I will hit.  On we go but 26 has been achieved.

So the first half of this book was a rip roaring ride.  All sorts of romance and scandal, flirting and glimpses of true love, dreams of futures, hopeful ideas.  I loved it all!  I loved the courting and the weddings. I loved the dresses and the jewels. I loved the jockeying for position between women and men, and I loved how clueless all the men were.  But wow the second half...

Man, it was a downer!  Not so much love or happiness.  Dreams dashed and futures in ruins.  And all the death, my goodness!  If men and children truly died in such numbers it is a wonder that the human race still exists!  But I still flew through it and couldn't wait to see what happened next, so there is that.

Royal Obsession

Ever since I can remember I have been obsessed with royals and the British royal family.  I loved Diana and my grandmother sent me books about the royals and their weddings.  My family traveled to London when I was young and I got to see all of the castles and that solidified it for me; these weren't stories, it was real!

So it is safe to say I was over the moon about the most recent royal wedding.  I loved waking up at 2:30 in the morning, watching the events unfold on TV while sipping my PG Tips tea.  I know a lot of people thought they would just catch the highlights later, but not me. I wanted to see it first hand.  I loved the anticipation of who would be stepping out of the next car, what her dress would look like, how William would react.  I loved how confident and happy they both looked.  I am unashamed to say that I cried and clapped and loved every ounce of pomp and circumstance that they dished out.  I giggled over Harry and tried to read lips.  And I cheered when they rode that Aston Martin out of the palace gates!

 **This was my favorite pictures of the whole thing!  The footman just dropped her dress in a pile when she got out of the carriage but Harry - a prince! - stepped in and took care of it.  Someone was raised right!

 

Anyway, this is a blog about books not weddings, so let's get back to it.

After all of the wedding excitement I was having a hard time getting back to reading so I finally picked up a book that my sister-in-law recommend to me when I was in the midst of my I'm-pregnant-and-can't-read stage.  I knew she had said it was hard for her to put down and I knew it was set in the royal courts of England and France, so it sounded perfect.  

And the truth is I have barely come up for breath since starting it.  It is truly a page turner and Barbra is so far a really great character.  It is quite the love story so far, and I bit more of a bodice ripper than I was expecting.  In fact, it reminds me a bit of this picture...

Awful, awful, I know, but sometimes it is funny to see the ways in which no matter how will laid your plans are, there is always a hitch!  Poor girl...