Review: Brigid of Kildare, by Heather Terrell

Pages: 235
Original publication date: 2010
My edition: 2010 (Ballantine)
Why I decided to read: Interest in the subject matter
How I acquired my copy: ARC through the Vine
Brigid of Kildare is a split-time novel. The story goes back and forth between Bridgid, a 5th-century woman chosen by Saint Patrick himself to convert the Irish into Christianity; and a modern-day appraiser of medieval objects named Alex, who is invited to Kildare to appraise a book that the nuns there own. The story is told as both a straight narrative and a series of letters written by a Roman spy named Decius, sent to Ireland to uncover possibly heresy.

The idea of the story is appealing, but the execution of the book is rather lackluster, I’m afraid. It’s rare that I complain that a book I don’t like is too short; but I thought that the story could have been fleshed out a lot more, especially the characters of Alexandra, who never comes across as more than a cold appraiser. Where’s her personality? Even Brigid herself wasn’t that appealing of a character, suffering from a lack of character development over the span of about 15 years. The author’s grasp of early medieval Christianity is sound, but I thought she resorted to clichés in many places, especially when it came to the Irish people. Another reader here says that there’s not a lot of historical detail here, and I agree with their assessment. In fact, had the headings of the chapters not given the dates, I wouldn’t have known that parts of the book took place in the 5th century. The book might appeal to fans of religious fiction, but those looking for a good historical tale will be disappointed.

Review: The Splendour Falls, by Susanna Kearsley

Pages: 380
Original date of publication: 1995
My edition: 1995
Why I decided to read: I’ve read and enjoyed Susanna Kearsley’s other novels
How I acquired my copy: The author generously gave it to me!
When Emily Branon’s cousin Harry suggests a holiday to Chinon, France, she jumps at the opportunity. Harry, a scholar, is “potty for Plantagenets,” and wants to visit the town to do a bit of research. But when Emily arrives in Chinon, she finds that her cousin has disappeared, and she makes the acquaintance of a few foreigners in the town, including a set of brothers from Canada, a German artist, and a violinist. Emily finds herself drawn in by the story of two women named Isabelle—one the wife of King John of England, the other a girl living during WWII, both of whom hid treasures beyond price.

This book is another strong one from Susanna Kearsley, who manages to draw her reader into her story. Having been in contact with the author herself, she’s been influenced by the novels of Mary Stewart, and that’s much in evidence here. Both authors use the settings of their novels as jumping-off places for the story, and feature strong romantic elements and a mystery. Susanna Kearsley’s novels are a little bit more rooted in the history of a place, though, and her plots are a little more grounded in reality. The Splendour Falls is good, escapist reading.

With novels like these, I feel like the narrator or main character should be at least a little bit cynical; that way, the novel ends up being more believable. While I felt that Emily was a cit too skeptical at times, especially about romance, I thought that the plot moved along at a good pace (albeit a bit predictable at times). It’s a little dated too (the author has one of her characters listen to music on a cassette player, but also keep in mind that this book was published 15 years ago). Still, I enjoyed this novel, and I’d recommend any of Kearsley’s novels to anyone who likes to read a good story with well-defined characters.

The Sunday Salon

I spent our snow day at home with my mom; we were basically trapped all weekend, until out snow-blow guy came and got us out this morning. Not a terrible lot of stuff got read, though I did finish The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters last night, and I read about 300 pages in A Hollow Crown over the weekend. On the flip side, though, I did get a number of reviews written, and I participated in Weekly Geeks, where I talked about Helen Hollick. This week I also read Someone at a Distance, by Dorothy Whipple; The Unquiet Bones, by Melvin Starr; and Brigid of Kildare, by Heather Terrell (coming out on Tuesday; reviews of all to follow).

Did you hear about the Amtrak train which got stuck in rural Pennsylvania over the weekend? At least the people onboard had things to read!

My mom and I have been watching on DVD the BBC miniseries Cranford, based on the Elizabeth Gaskell book. Both of us loved it so much I went and bought a copy of the novel. Cranford is the story of a small, provincial town and the effect that the modern age has upon it. The story revolves around a group of the town’s spinsters, especially Miss Matty Jenkyns (played in the five-part miniseries by Judy Dench) and her sister Deborah (played by Eileen Atkins). The cast is stellar (it also includes the extraordinarily funny Imelda Staunton as Miss Pole), and the acting is superb. It’s a must-watch, even if you haven’t read the book.

I got to thinking recently about book buying. I do a lot of mine online, especially for some of the rarer stuff (for example, I bought a few Juliet Dymoke books on Amazon Marketplace this week). It’s so easy to buy stuff online, isn’t it? I’m really trying to cut back on the book buying, especially since I have so many unread books lying on my floor (62 at last count), and I buy books faster than I actually read them! I really need to read and review a lot of them before I can buy any more—so that’s going to be something I’m committing myself to from here on out. No more book buying for the rest of February, and I expect you all to hold me to it! Where do you buy your books? And do you have to force yourself to control your spending if your TBR pile gets out of control?

Review: The Carlyles at Home, Thea Holme

Pages: 200
Original publication date: 1964
My edition: 2002 (Persephone)
Why I decided to read: Browsing in the Persephone bookshop
How I acquired my copy: bought from the Persephone shop in Lambs Conduit Street, London when I was there in September
The Carlyles At Home is an account of the years that Thomas and Jane Carlyle lived at 5 (now 24) Cheyne Row, London, moving there in 1834 and covering the years up until Jane’s death in 1866. Thomas Carlyle was, of course, a famous writer and essayist, and the couple hobnobbed with many famous people (as a side note, it was interesting to learn that John Stuart Mill's maid accidentally burned the manuscript of Carlyle's The French Revolution, thinking it was waste paper!). Carlyle's relationship with his wife was stormy, to say the least; but this book is less about all of that than it is about the couple's domestic arrangements.

The book is short (about 200 pages), but it covers a lot of ground, from the animals the couple kept (the story of their dog, Nero, is especially touching), to the clothing they wore both inside and outside the house, to the various repairs and restorations the Carlyles made to the house (it turns out that 19th century contractors are much like their modern-day counterparts), to the wacky, noisy neighbors at number 6 (and the not-soundproffed soudproof room they had built), to their Servant Problem (34 maids-of-all-work in 32 years), it’s all here. And all very interesting, despite the fact that the domestic matters of famous people are frequently overlooked in favor of their accomplishments.

The book draws heavily from the voluminous correspondence that the Carlyles maintained over the years—it turns out that not only was Carlyle a writer, but Jane was as well. Her letters are witty and funny, and prove that the story of the woman behind the man is as interesting as the story of the man himself. Really, this book is more about Jane. Although I appreciate the tone of their correspondence, I’m not sure I would have wanted to live with the Carlyles—it seems as though Thomas was always complaining about something, or that Jane was constantly sick and in a bad temper. Their marriage has been described as unhappy, but in this book, I don't see that at all.

I thought the organization of the book could have withstood some better organization; it’s organized by subject matter and not chronologically, so things could often get confusing. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this glimpse into the lives of two intelligent, interesting people, written by an actress who lived in the Carlyles house nearly a hundred years after Jane’s death (the house is now a museum; her husband was the curator there). Although a strong female is at the heart of this account, it’s not an overly feminist book.

This is Persephone no. 32 (endpaper below; it's the 1857 portrait of Thomas and Jane at home; Carlyle here is wearing the silk, striped dressing gown that's made mention of in the book)

Weekly Geeks: Fun Facts about Helen Hollick

For Weekly Geeks this week, I would like to revisit one of my favorites from the past. This particular geeky assignment was posted by Dewey back in November of 2008, just weeks before she died. Here's what she posted then:

This week’s theme is: fun facts about authors.

How to:

1. Choose a writer you like.
2. Using resources such as Wikipedia, the author’s website, whatever you can find, make a list of interesting facts about the author.
3. Post your fun facts list in your blog, maybe with a photo of the writer, a collage of his or her books, whatever you want.
4. Come sign the Mr Linky below with the url to your fun facts post.
5. As you run into (or deliberately seek out) other Weekly Geeks’ lists, add links to your post for authors you like or authors you think your readers are interested in.

As you can see, the task is simple this week! Of course, if you did this one before, pick a different author to write about. If you are like me, and can't choose just one, go ahead and write about two (or three.)

I remember this challenge from last November well. The last time I participated, I chose Victoria Holt as my author—I chose her because I was reading and enjoying Mistress of Mellyn at the time. This time I figured I’d do the same with my current read: A Hollow Crown, Helen Hollick (I needed something chunky, as with about two feet of snow on the ground, I'm trapped for the present moment!).

Hollick is the author of the Arthurian trilogy series, which many of you have read (I haven’t, yet), as well as a couple of novels set before and during the Conquest (A Hollow Crown and Harold the King). She also write a historical fantasy series called the Seat Witch series. Technically, AHC, which is about Emma of Normandy, wife to King Aethelred of England and then Cnut, is a prequel to Harold the King, which is set during the conquest, but it was written afterwards. A Hollow Crown opens with Emma's marriage in 1002, and follows her story up through 1042. Emma was the mother of Edward the Confessor, and the great-aunt of William the Conqueror. At over 800 pages, it's an ambitious undertaking, but I'm really enjoying the story. Well not enjoying so much (there's a fair amount of violence and death 150 pages in, but what else can you expect from Danish raiders?), but Hollick is a very good writer who tells her story well.

On to the author herself: according to Wikipedia, Helen Hollick was born in 1953, and worked for a number of years as a library assistant, where she developed her interest in the medieval period. Her Arthurian trilogy was accepted just around the time of her 40th birthday. She lives in Walthamstow, England with her husband and adult daughter, both of which ironically suffer from dyslexia. She is a member of the society of authors, and served as a consultant on the film 1066. In 2009, Sourcebooks began reprinting her Arthurian trilogy; Harold the King and A Hollow Crown are due to be republished in the near future (I heard somewhere that one of them is getting a new title?).

Photograph of the author taken from the author’s website.

Review: The Road to Jerusalem, by Jan Guillou

Pages: 380
Original publication date: 1998 (in Swedish)
My edition: 2009 (Harper)
Why I decided to read: Elizabeth Chadwick recommended on her website.
How I acquired my copy: bought from bookdepository UK
Arn of Gotha is born in 1150, the younger son of a wealthy landowner. After a miracle occurs, Arn is sent to a monastery, where he is trained in both spiritual and physical matters—in the latter, by a former Knight Templar. The novel covers Arn’s early years, up until the time he is sent off to fight as a Knight Templar himself. The outcome of the novel is inevitable, but it’s the way that Arn gets there that is particularly interesting.

It’s not an easy read, by any stretch; I don’t know if it’s Jan Guillou’s writing style or the way the translator translated the book, but there were certain passages that were a bit slow going for me. There’s also a lot in here about faith and sin, although I didn’t find the religious bits off putting. Rather, it led an air of veracity to the whole novel. There’s also a fair amount of Swedish history thrown in, though Guillou doesn’t hit his reader over the head with it. The political maneuverings of medieval Sweden can be a bit confusing, though.

More than anything, though, this is a coming of age novel, set in a place that I really didn’t know much about 9I’m familiar with 12th-century history in other parts of Europe, but Sweden was a whole new ball game for me). It was a little hard for me to believe that Arn could be such an innocent about certain things, but I think the author handled Arn’s development as the central character especially well. The Road to Jerusalem is the first book in a trilogy that continues with The Knight Templar and Birth of the Kingdom.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to:

--Grab your current read
--Let the book open to a random page.
--Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
--You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from… that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

“Since Marianne departure from the house in Kensington, a flood of books and manuscripts had crept unhindered from room to room, from floor to floor, until now you could hardly open the front door for books. In some of the great lofty rooms, John had scooped out places for himself, where he read, ate, smoked and slept.”

--From Someone at a Distance, by Dorothy Whipple

Review: O, Juliet, by Robin Maxwell

Pages: 352
Original publication date: 2010
My edition: 2010 (NAL Trade)
Why I decided to read: I enjoyed Maxwell's novel on Elizabeth I a few years ago; the idea of a novel on Romeo and Juliet intrigued me.
How I acquired my copy: ARC through Amazon Vine
O, Juliet is the story of Juliet Capelletti, daughter of a merchant in Florence, who, betrothed to her father’s partner Jacopo Strozzi, falls in love with Romeo Monticecco, whose family own a rival company. The story is told primarily from the point of view of Juliet, and attempts to follow Shakespeare’s play.

I was so prepared to love this novel, but I simply didn’t. O Juliet is faithful neither to Shakespeare’s play, nor is it faithful to the historical story of Romeo and Juliet (and there really were a Romeo and Juliet, who lived in Verona in the early 14th century). Maxwell, for some inexplicable reason, chooses to set her story in 15th century Verona, which really had me scratching my head—especially when Cosimo de Medici entered the picture, since he doesn’t seem to add anything to the story.

The characters in this novel are not really believable and I found it hard to be empathetic towards them. Juliet comes across as an empty-headed girl, and the author’s attempts to give her book smarts really didn’t work for me. I also didn’t love Romeo’s character; he seems a bit wishy-washy. And their relationship seemed to be based more on hormones, not the great, abiding love of Shakespeare’s story. There’s also the rather buffoonish Strozzi (who’s never given much of a personality beyond his physical characteristics). Really, did we need to be told over and over how bad his breath is?

Bad characters can sometimes be excused, if the plot is any good; but here, it’s just awful. The author could have created something really awesome if she’d chosen to focus on the REAL Romeo and Juliet story (not necessarily Shakespeare’s version). If memory serves me right, in the original story, the Montagues and Capulets were on different sides of the Guelph/ Ghibelline political struggle in Italy in the late Middle Ages. THAT would have been a great story, given the story much more of a sense of conflict. In this novel, however, the main source of tension between the Monticeccos and Capellettis is caused by jealousy and petty rivalry in business. Not all that interesting, in my opinion, and not worthy of the title of "ancient grudge" that Shakespeare mentions in his play (the grudge is centuries old; so old in fact, that nobody remembers when it started. So the fight in this novel between two merchants, both presumably self-made men in early modern Florence, don't exactly have a deep-seated animosity towards one another).

As a side note, the writing is atrocious, and the author uses more clichés than I could count. It was a pretty quick, easy read, and not one I’d particularly recommend. As I’ve said before, the novel draws heavily from Shakespeare’s play, and doesn’t add anything new or insightful to either Romeo or Juliet’s characters.

The Sunday Salon

Well, it’s been cold here this weekend, with a healthy dose of snow yesterday. Good thing I got my errands in yesterday before it all started! I spent much of the weekend indoors, reading and watching TV. This week I finished reading The Love Knot; read The Victory, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (the 12th book in the Morland Dynasty series); and yesterday afternoon I finished an ARC of Heresy, by SJ Parris, which came to me courtesy of the Vine.

Also reading intermittently this week (and probably well into this next) was the 800-page-plus collection of Mitford letters, edited by Charlotte Mosley (The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters. I'm using it for the A to Z Challenge, and cheating just a bit; I'm taking the X from the word six and using the book as my X title). It’s been my bedside book this past week, and I’ve been reading a bit at a time before bed. Currently about halfway through and enjoying it immensely. This compilation is only about 5% of the total collection of 12,000 letters, and it’s really fascinating to read the Mitford story through the unique voices of the six sisters (Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah). I think when I review the book, I’m going to focus on the collection itself, not necessarily analyze the sisters themselves—one could go on for days about the controversial and not-so-controversial things the girls did during their lifetimes. It’s a very good collection of letters, spanning the course of the twentieth century and slightly beyond.

More blog maintenance this weekend; I realized I needed to get some of my bookmarks sorted out. What I do is, whenever one of my fellow bloggers reviews something I have, I bookmark it, to later link to the review in my own. I realized that I have four months’ worth of bookmarks to link! I think it was somewhere in the realm of 150 posts. So I’ve been busy with that, although I’m still not done yet. This week I also wrote a few reviews, to be published at a later date.

On to the ubiquitous reading wrap-up for January. 11 books read this month, with two in progress (the Mitford book, plus Dorothy Whipple’s Someone at a Distance). Alphabetically by author:

Within the Hollow Crown, by Margaret Campbell Barnes
The Love Knot, by Elizabeth Chadwick
Twilight of Avalon, by Anna Elliott
Fidelity, by Susan Glaspell
The Road to Jerusalem, by Jan Guillou
The Queen’s Governess, by Karen Harper
The Victory, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
The Carlyles at Home, by Thea Holme
The Splendour Falls, by Susanna Kearsley
O Juliet, by Robin Maxwell
Heresy, by SJ Parris

The best of these were the Susanna Kearsley, as well as the Holme (I gave both five stars). Coming in close behind were the Elliott, Chadwick, and Glaspell books, with 4.5 each. Least favorite read of the month was the Robin Maxwell, which earned two. Given that I tend to be on the harsh side when it comes to ratings, it’s been a good month! One of my goals for this year is to read more nonfiction (since only 8% of what I read last year was nonfic, down from 17% in 2008); and I've definitely been keeping up with that so far. Hope to keep up my good reading streak in February...

How was your weekend?

Weekly Geeks

For this week's Weekly Geeks, share with us the books which call out to you during the cold, wintry months. Are there genres which appeal to you most? Why do you think you are drawn to these types of books during winter? Do you have some book recommendations for other readers who are looking for some escape from the blustery weather? Give us some of your favorites and tell us why you recommend them.

As "extra credit" why not share some photos of what the weather looks like outside your home...or where you curl up to read when 'the weather outside is frightening.'

Seasonal reading: what a great topic! Especially since it’s 18 degrees F here in southeastern Pennsylvania. I frequently gravitate towards chunksters in the winter; a great read towards this end is Sharon Kay Penman’s The Sunne in Splendour, or MM Kaye’s The Far Pavilions. I also recommend anything by Dorothy Whipple as a good winter read by the fire.

I also tend to go for books with a darker theme, such as The Meaning of Night, by Michael Cox, or its sequel, The Glass of Time. Then again, a great book for chasing away the winter blues is DE Stvenson’s Miss Buncle’s Book!

If you want weather-appropriate settings, Try Robert Goolrick’s A Reliable Wife (which I didn’t like, but I can see why some people might like it); or Wintering, by Kate Moses (a novel about Sylvia Plath). What are your top winter reads?

Update, 2:10 pm: it's snowing....

Friday Finds

I haven’t done these is a while, have I? Here’s a selection fo books I’ve heard about recently:

Spooky Little Girl, by Laurie Notaro. Her latest book, which is coming out in April. Don’t know too much about it, except that the subtitle is “a novel,” which is a departure from her usual collection of humor essays (though she’s written another novel as well).

Testament, by Alis Hawkins. Timeslip novel that goes back and forth between the present day and the 14th century.

Heresy, by SJ Parris. Historical novel that I’m receiving through the Amazon Vine program

The Sheen on the Silk, by Anne Perry. A stand-alone novel set in 13th-century Constantinople; another Vine item.

Hangman Blind, by Cassandra Clark. Mystery set in 14th century York. Same time period as Candace Robb’s Owen Archer series, but a totally different “detective.”

The Creation of Eve, by Lynne Cullen. I’ve recently heard that I’ll be receiving an ARC of this.

What have you heard about this week?

Review: Twilight of Avalon, by Anna Elliott

Pages: 448
Original publication date: 2009
My edition: 2009 (Touchstone)
Why I decided to read: Vague interest in Arthurian legends/early medieval history.
How I acquired my copy: bought with a giftcard at Barnes & Noble.
I have to say right off the bat that this book wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I was expecting (and maybe dreading, a bit) a fantasy-ish retelling of the Trystan and Isolde story. But what Anna Elliott does here, to my delighted surprise, is combine elements of the legends with what is known about the early Middle Ages—in this case, the invasions of the Saxons in the 5th and 6th centuries. Most of the Trystan and Isolde stories are based on those written down in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, and are therefore done in the tradition of courtly romances. Anna Elliott’s rendition is much more realistic.

The story opens just after the death of Isolde’s husband Constantine, the High King of Britain. Immediately, Lord Marche begins jockeying for power, quickly becoming the High King. Isolde escapes marriage with him; becoming acquainted with a prisoner named Trystan. At first he called himself , or stranger, is an appropriate description; he’ half-Briton and half-Saxon, yet neither at the same time. The novel, which is the first in a trilogy, is told primarily from the point of view of Isolde, but I suspect further books in the series will tell the story from Trystan’s side, too. This book is not a straight romance, as the relationship between Isolde and Tystan is just beginning to evolve here. I expect much more to happen in further books.

As I’ve said before, I went into the reading of the book as a skeptic—not only because I thought it would be more fantasy, but also because I was skeptical of the idea of the whole healer aspect. I also thought that there would be a lot more magic here, and there isn’t—Isolde has lost her powers, but they’re really still there, hiding underneath the surface. I was a bit out of my comfort zone; I don’t usually read novels based on the Arthurian legends. But this book was a completely unique one. It’s interesting how the author managed to use written versions of the Trytan and Isolde story in order to return it to the way the stories were originally told—orally. I loved how the author incorporated the historical elements into the story, grounding it in reality while at the same time stay more or less true to the oral tradition of storytelling (which is a major theme of this novel).

Not only is the setting very real, but the characters are, too. For a trilogy to work properly, you have to make it so that the reader is drawn into the lives of the characters enough so that they want to read on. I definitely will be reading more in this trilogy; the next book, Dark Moon of Avalon, comes out in May, and I can’t wait! All in all, a really strong start to what promises to be an exciting trilogy.

Cover Deja-Vu# 19

This is the Dover Thrift edition of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, which shares a cover image with these covers right here.

Reaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to:

--Grab your current read
--Let the book open to a random page.
--Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
--You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from… that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

“Lucy delayed writing to Weston about the baby until she had heard from Chetwyn, and so when the Nemesis put into Torbay, on New Year’s Eve, there was no news for him. The fleet remained at anchor only one day, before returning to station, but further westerly gales followed, at at the end of January the fleet was forced again to run for shelter to Torbay.”

--From The Victory, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Review: Fidelity, by Susan Glaspell

Pages: 442
Original pulication date: 1915
My edition: 2009 (Persephone)
Why I decided to read: Browse on the Persephone website
How I acquired my copy: Persephone subscription received for Christmas
Fidelity is set in Freeport, a small Midwestern town that, ironically, is neither a “port” nor “free.” Ruth Holland shocks the town by running away with a married man. Eleven years later, as her father is dying, she comes back to Freeport, and faces the censure of the townspeople.

The novel, published in 1915, is the story of what happens when a young woman chooses her own happiness over that of other people. The novel asks, which is more important, “society?” Or the need for an individual to be “free?” It’s not until after Ruth returns to Freeport that she realizes the effect her actions have had upon the rest of the town—and that she starts to feel remorse for how much she has hurt them. Unusually, this is a novel about marital infidelity that is told from the point of view of “the other woman.”

One of the main themes of the novel is love—not necessarily romantic love, but love for family and friends. It’s remarkable how many friends Ruth still has in Freeport, despite all she has done. Most remarkable of all is Deane Franklin, Ruth’s old friend, who seems to be the only one in the town who can view her situation objectively. The title refers not to marital fidelity, or the lack of it, but a fidelity to a certain set of principles. And, ultimately, this book is about Ruth’s search for identity in a society in which her life would have been circumscribed had she not made the decisions she made.

This is Persephone #4 (endpaper below)