Skip to main content

Sunday Salon


Since everyone else is doing this, I figure that I might as well, too! It's been a busy week for me, reading and catching up on reviews. Yesterday I posted a review of The Rose of Sebastopol, which I wasn't so keen on. Later I found out that the book is billed as YA, so I think that had I been younger, I might have enjoyed it more. I also posted reviews of The Other Queen (another book I didn't like), The Dracula Dossier, and The Blackstone Key. I also revived Dreadful Book Covers, and held a couple of giveaways. Which reminds me, I need to pick a winner for The Shape of Mercy.


Currently I'm read Devil's Brood, Sharon Kay Penman's latest novel. It's the third book in a trilogy featuring Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and so far I'm loving it. This time Penman focuses on the volatile relationship Henry had with his sons. The author never fails to impress me with how she manages to both tell a good story and educate her reader at the same time. If I could ever write historical fiction, Penman's type of novels are the books I'd write.

Comments

Iliana said…
Interesting that The Rose of Sebastopol is a YA book. The cover is lovely but it doesn't seem very YA to me.

And, yep, I haven't read many good reviews of The Other Queen. I'd like to try another Gregory book but I may choose a different one.
Literary Feline said…
I am not familiar with Sharon Kay Penman, but it sounds like I will have to remedy that.

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! I hope you have a great week.

Popular posts from this blog

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars...

Review: Mariana, by Monica Dickens

Mariana is the story of one young girl’s growth towards adulthood during the 1920s and ‘30s. The book begins when Mary Shannon is eight, and traveling with her somewhat flighty mother to Charbury, her grandparents’ house; and continues up through the time that Mary is twenty-four and waiting to hear news of her husband from the war. Monica Dickens (a great-granddaughter of Charles) depicts Mary’s maturation to adulthood with perfection. The reader sympathizes with Mary as she experiences the ups and downs of relationships and careers—experimenting with both seems to be pretty characteristic of Mary, as she grapples a bit with identity and independence. And yet, there isn’t the usual amount of teenage angst that one usually finds in a novel about growing up, which I found to be very refreshing. Mary is a sweet and sometimes naïve girl, but at the same time, she’s also wonderfully sarcastic towards her peers. She’s hard to like at times, but in an odd way, I found myself sympathizing wi...