Mike's Book & Movie Corner

2012-02-04T11:01:00.003-05:00

"The Immortals" (2011)--Went with a movie buddy last night to see this at our local second run movie house. If you liked "300" (and we both did), you'll probably like this one, too, although it's really not as solidly entertaining a flick as that one was. It was a no-holds-barred blood and guts movie, great for a guys' night out--it had everything: gut-wrenching violence, blood spattering, martial arts maneuvers, high octane battles, horrendous torture, evil vs. good, even some nudity thrown in. However, the sad excuse for a plot concerns the peasant Theseus, whose mother, Aethra, is killed by marauders of the loathesome King Hyperion, looking for the Bow of Epirus, which will release the Titans from their prison in Mount Tartarus (having been put there after their defeat by the gods of Olympus). The wicked, thoroughly nasty Hyperion wants the bow so he can release the Titans and rule the world or something dreadful anyway, and it becomes Theseus' quest to stop him and thus save mankind from utter destruction. He is helped in his quest by Phaedra, a Sibylline priestess, and the criminal (but brave) Stavros. Not based on any Greek myth I'm familiar with, it had great special effects, bad script, bad story, mediocre acting. So many things wrong with this movie besides its lack of a decent storyline--Zeus killing Apollo? Theseus a peasant? Theseus' mother being brutally murdered? Gods being slain by Titans? The gods claiming they can't interfere with mortals? BAH!! But when there's lots of noise, violence, and fantastic special effects, and it was a cheap ticket besides, who really cares? I will say that after seeing him in this movie, I think Henry Cavill (Theseus) will definitely be up to the challenge of portraying Superman, and hopefully he will be able to redeem himself in that upcoming production for participating in this film.

2012-01-30T15:35:00.001-05:00

OH MY GODS: A MODERN RETELLING OF GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHS by Philip Freeman, 2012.

Wonderfully readable renditions of the ancient Greek and Roman myths, stories that have spoken to us for countless generations, reflecting our human hopes, desires, and fears. Freeman writes with great humor and wit, which adds to the general pleasure of reading these stories. The book is arranged in sections like "Gods," "Lovers," "Heroes," and "Troy," and he covers all the well known, popular tales: Perseus, Medusa and Andromeda, Icarus, the Minotaur, Odysseus' wanderings after the fall of Troy, the tragedy of Oedipus, Orpheus and Eurydice, the Argonauts, etc. The author spins the tales with great enthusiasm and contemporary language, and made them fascinating and fun. If you are unfamiliar with the great characters from mythology, this is a fine introduction to them, and an enjoyable read to boot. Freeman includes a character list and genealogies as well.

2012-01-24T16:26:00.003-05:00

LOST KINGDOM: HAWAII'S LAST QUEEN, THE SUGAR KINGS, AND AMERICA'S FIRST IMPERIAL ADVENTURE by Julia Flynn Siler, 2012.

A riveting chronicle of how Hawaii came to be a part of the United States. The author has utilized available sources, including letters and diaries belonging to members of the Hawaiian royal family, to create this meticulous, absorbing narrative of the beautiful and calm Polynesian island chain before the arrival of the Americans and how the kingdom was taken over and transformed (not always for the better) by outsiders. With the arrival of the New England Christian missionaries in 1820 to Christianize and educate the native population, eventually Western powers like England and the U.S. began to take notice of Hawaii, and then to insert themselves into the kingdom's affairs. Siler not only discusses the changes that occurred because of this intrusion, but follows the life of Lili'u, born and educated to become the last queen of Hawaii, and presents a clear, well drawn portrait of this last Hawaiian monarch. She explores the various issues with the white planters who took over most of the prime agricultural land in order to grow sugar cane, made enormous fortunes, and became the self proclaimed "Sugar Kings," with their ever-growing influence in Hawaiian matters of state. King David, Lili'u's brother, indebted to most of them, became more ineffectual as a monarch as the years passed.
By the time Lili'u came to the throne as Queen Lili'uokalani, her country was almost bankrupt, the natives were nearly powerless in their own government, and a few wealthy men were increasingly in control. In 1893 at the instigation of this powerful political group (and against the wishes of most of the native population) American troops landed in Honolulu, deposed the queen and kept her under house arrest. By 1896, with no help forthcoming, Lili'u was forced to abdicate her throne. Although she sought help from other nations (including the sympathetic President Cleveland and the United States) to regain her throne, by 1898, with the concerns of the Spanish-American War at the forefront, the United States under the newly elected President McKinley annexed Hawaii and thus gained a strong foothold in the Pacific. Siler writes movingly of the loss of Hawaiian customs and language, of the natural beauty of the islands, of governmental control taken from the natives and given to white planters and businessmen, of a monarchy haunted and decimated by disease, drinking problems, indebtedness, bad advisers, and ignorance, the ineffectual attempts at restoring power to the Hawaiian people, and the controversies surrounding annexation. A highly readable, factual, interesting, and revealing account of American imperialism in the Pacific and the tragedy it wrought on the island kingdom that became our 50th state.

2012-01-14T12:10:00.002-05:00

LIVIA, EMPRESS OF ROME by Matthew Dennison, 2010.

If you are expecting to read about the scheming and malevolent Livia made famous by Robert Graves' novel or the TV miniseries "I, Claudius," you will be disappointed in this biography. Author Dennison has taken the available sources concerning the Julio-Claudian rulers of Rome, carefully sifted through the details, and fashioned a portrait of Livia that is somewhat revisionist (but perhaps more truthful). The book definitely gives the reader the impression that she was not necessarily a malicious, manipulative person with which we are most familiar, but someone who played the role of supporter her husband desired, who made herself indispensable to him, and who used her gifts of intelligence and organization to simply further her family's ambitions. The author is skeptical of sources like Tacitus and others who had an axe to grind against Livia, or who wrote many years after the events they describe. His narrative is smooth and readable, covering Livia's early years (as much as is known); her marriages to Tiberius Claudius Nero and then to Augustus; her life as Augustus' wife and helpmate during the time Rome moved from being a republic to an empire; her tangled and tumultuous familial relationships with her sister-in-law Octavia, her daughter-in-law Antonia, her sons Tiberius and Drusus, her stepdaughter Julia, etc.; her relations with certain Roman political figures; and her pursuit and use of power over eight decades. The author's view is that Livia's crime was not murder, but her scheming and maneuvering tactics to gain power for herself and for her son Tiberius, who became the emperor after Augustus' death. I agree this is surely a more balanced portrait of Livia and it has provided more facets of her life besides the many murders and other wickedness that has been laid at her doorstep. She most likely was over-maligned and accused of horrendous crimes that were not of her doing, but the possibility exists that Livia was behind at least some of them--consider Marcellus' death, Julia's banishment for sexual promiscuity--these events especially were of benefit to Livia or her son, and it's not out of the realm of possibility that she had something to do with them. My one complaint with the book is the author's tendency to whitewash or discount things that he doesn't like or to claim that a source is unreliable in some details but reliable in others that support his claims. However, in the main, Dennison has provided a very readable, interesting account of a truly formidable female who lived during a dangerous and disturbing period in Rome's history, who was able to find and secure her role in its society, to be actively involved in events and maintain her position, and survive to become the matriarch of what was probably Rome's most notorious dynasty.

2012-01-09T10:06:00.001-05:00

Spent a wonderfully satisfying afternoon yesterday viewing Stephen Spielberg's recently released film "War Horse"(2011). Based on a children's book by Michael Morpurgo (which I haven't read), the story follows an intelligent and loyal horse from Devon, England, as he passes through the lives of several people during the World War I era. From the opening sequence, depicting the colt's birth, young Albert Narracott (Jeremy Irvine) feels an attachment for the animal.When the horse, still young and untrained, is put up for auction in the village, Albert's father stubbornly wins the bid against his landlord and brings him home, much to the disgust of his wife Rose, who expected him to bring home a horse for the farm work. Albert, thrilled, names him Joey, and faithfully trains him. When war comes, Albert's father (in need of money for the rent due on the family farm) sells Joey to the British army and a new master. With Ted Narracott's Boer War pennant tied to his bridle, thus begins the Joey's journey into the hell of war-torn Europe. Spielberg has done a wonderful job in relating the story of this magnificent horse and the friends he makes through the years, set against the backdrop of war with all its horrors and miseries for both humans and animals. The horse is the major star in this story, and Spielberg made the right decision to do the film that way. The other characters are important to the story, but the audience is swept along and views the horse's experience through his viewpoint. Even though you do root for Albert, once he is in France as a soldier, to finally locate his horse, it is the horse you wish to see triumph even more. And all along the adventure, the audience is treated to some marvelous setpieces: Joey's birth in a Devon pasture; his first battle in France against the Germans; the awful suffering in pulling the German guns across the land; the death of Joey's friend, the big black horse Topthorn; the beauty of the Devon farmlands and villages; the terrors of being gassed in the trenches. John Williams' wonderful score is so appropriate and moving. Most of the human roles (with the exception of Albert) are small but well cast: Emily Watson and Peter Mullen as the Narracotts are fine; Benedict Cumberbatch as Major Stewart; Tom Hiddleston as Captain Nicholls; Patrick Kennedy (from "Bleak House") Eddie Marsan, and Toby Kebbell as British soldiers, and Celine Buckens as a young French girl all add richness to the storyline in their parts. Spielberg didn't skimp on accurate details concerning the use of horses during World War I and should be commended for this. Hundreds of thousands of horses and mules died on the battlefields in Europe, many were sent from the United States and Canada.Those left alive at the end of the war were auctioned off. Yes, at times the film maker is a bit sentimental and sappy and does his best to tug the viewer's heartstrings, but why not? With its universal themes of friendship, separation, longing for home, unexpected kindness, and heroism, Spielberg has created a beautiful and moving saga that is definitely easy on the eyes and will linger on in the memory long afterward. I highly recommend seeing it on the big screen; for my time and money, it was totally worthwhile.

2012-01-07T10:09:00.002-05:00

GEORGIA BOTTOMS by Mark Childress, 2011.

Full of charming small town humor and quirky characters, the story concerns Georgia Bottoms (family name was previously Butts) in Six Points, Alabama, a good looking woman who makes a living serving as the mistress to six important men in the town. She's a great cook, faithful churchgoer, a superlative hostess, and she takes care of her mother who has borderline dementia as well as watches out for her bum brother. Each of her gentlemen callers is unaware of her relationship with the others, and so her life is a juggling act that she has totally perfected and she makes sure that everything stays on schedule. Her callers leave her weekly generous gifts (money) to help with her lifestyle. However, when the preacher (her Saturday night lover), feeling a huge burden of guilt, threatens to spill the beans on their set up, her world begins to come crashing down. Then her annual September luncheon is totally ruined by 9/11, and when things just can't seem to get any worse, a strange young man arrives at her front door, and Georgia realizes the jig is up and it's time to face the music. Even her best friend and co-conspirator Krystal, the town's mayor, can't help her, as she has problems of her own, and one of them involves her own feelings about Georgia. This novel is all about human frailties and failings and misplaced values, done with great humor and insight. A light, fun read, on the order of Fannie Flagg and Clyde Edgerton.

2011-12-14T10:06:00.000-05:00

"The Muppets" (2011).

Took my wife to see the film "The Muppets" for her birthday, and we found it an entertaining and fun movie. A good way to spend a couple of hours, and especially good if you are a Muppets fan from way back. It has all your favorite characters: Gonzo, Rowlf, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, the Chef, etc. They are all involved in a story in which the Muppets are trying to make a comeback before their old theater is bought and torn down by an evil millionaire (Chris Cooper in a fun bad role) to get at the oil that is underneath. Intertwined with this is the coming of age story of Walter, a puppet, and his brother Gary (Jason Segel). Gary has been in love with Mary (Amy Adams) for ten years, but can't seem to let go of Walter, claiming Walter needs him; the need is actually mutual. When Gary and Mary decide to go on a trip to California, they end up taking Walter along and the of them three visit the old Muppet studio. Walter actually overhears the plans for it, and he instigates a reunion of the Muppets to save it. So they travel around, discovering the old Muppets cast members in various and sundry locations and jobs and convincing them to reunite and throw a big fundraiser to save the theater. Meanwhile, tempers flare and egos rise, and Chris Cooper is in a bad mood after hearing about the coming event and tries to sabotage it. Mary feels neglected and leaves; Walter and Gary decide whether they are man or muppet? and Miss Piggy and Kermit come to an agreement. Full of celebrity cameos, slapstick, song and dance numbers, jokey humor, and good ol' Muppet acts, we found it silly and fun and nostalgic. Brought back wonderful memories of the old "Muppet Show" and how entertaining it really was and how happy it made us feel. Good fun.

2011-12-05T19:44:00.001-05:00

OUT OF OZ by Gregory Maguire, 2011.

This latest by Maguire concerns mainly the coming of age of Elphaba's granddaughter, a little green girl named Rain, and her coming into her own during a dreadful time of chaos in Oz. The Free State of Munchkinland is in revolt, Rain's great-uncle Shell Thropp has declared himself the divine Emperor of the Emerald City and Loyal Oz, Glinda has been put under house arrest at Mockbeggar Hall, and the witch Mombey rules in Munchkinland with a young man named Tip in her clutches. War has begun, involving troops (later including Animals), dragon attacks, refugees, political intrigues, and magic. Elphaba's Grimmerie is being hunted by the desperate power seekers, and the witch's broom is still in the picture. But alas, no Elphaba, and how I wished for her to make an appearance in this mostly dire, gloomy and dismal sort of tale that has some spots of brightness.

The novel seemed uneven to me, parts of it read really well and were quite enjoyable, others not so much. The author is possessed of a wonderful imagination and when it shines it is like gold. His clever references to things from Baum's stories and the movie--"what a world, what a world," one character says, are fun for the Oz fan; when multiple pairs of the ruby slippers that Dorothy wore were found and thrown away as useless, that made for a good inside reference. However, for the most part, I was disappointed and unsatisfied by this whole story. Bringing Dorothy Gale back to Oz was a master stroke, and I was thoroughly entertained every time she was on the page--she's 16 by this time, although decades had passed in Oz--but he should have used her more than he did. To bring her back for a huge courtroom drama in which she convicted of murdering Elphaba and Nessarose and then escapes to do--what? Not a whole lot. I personally think he made a miscalculation by not reuniting her at some point with Glinda. How could you not have them meet again? The parts covering Glinda were well done: Glinda under house arrest by order of General Cherrystone and having to make do with fewer servants and doing her own cooking seemed on the mark, as well as her scenes with Rain; her meeting Rain after some years was very fitting. Glinda is still beautiful and rather clueless, but a great character nonetheless. The Cowardly Lion (Brr) was majestic, funny, and at times stole the show as far as interest goes. I found it quite appropriate that he who formerly lacked courage was put in charge of the Emerald City and did a bang up job of it. The whole Tip episode was interesting, but as I was familiar with Tip's story from Baum's books and realized its outcome, it felt rather anti-climactic to the story. And Mombey--enjoyed his portrayal of that character--but what happened to Mombey? The reader doesn't really know.

Maguire's characters took way too many journeys around the country for too many pages for my taste, I became weary reading so much of that. Enjoyed his cameos of characters like General Jinjur (Jinjuria), Jellia Jamb, and others (like Miss Pfanee and Shenshen) from Baum's and his own stories. Liked the spots with Nanny (who knows more than she tells about what happened to Elphaba) and Chistery, the flying monkey. Liir and Candle? Nor? Wish I could have cared more about them. Disappointed in the novel's conclusion--the ending just seemed so rambling and meandering and left me feeling unsettled and unsatisfied. He answered some questions but left other things unresolved, which I didn't like. Even though I'm done with the book and have thought about it for a few days, I still feel conflicted over it. Parts of it I liked and parts I didn't. I wanted so much to like the entire book, but I didn't. I had really hoped for a more fitting entry for the conclusion of the series, and I don't feel it provided that.

This is purported to be the last volume of Maguire's Wicked Years series, and I hope that is true. While I'm not sorry to have read all of the novels, I still think that Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, is still the best of the lot, and that with this story, the series has run its course.

2011-11-26T08:59:00.001-05:00

ELIZABETH'S WOMEN by Tracy Borman, 2009.

An easily digested treatment of Elizabeth I's life through her relationships with the women around her. As Elizabeth's life and reign are often looked at through the prominent male figures in her orbit, this work provides a different focus on Elizabeth's dazzingly successful reign as England's queen. A large number of women influenced, antagonized, opposed or befriended Elizabeth, from the time of her birth through the end of her days. Borman divides her book into chapters with themes of relationships: "Stepmothers," "Governess," "Cousins," etc. Not only does Borman include most of the well-known females, e.g., her mother, Anne Boleyn; her half-sister Mary; her last stepmother Katherine Parr; and her governess, Kat Ashley (here called Astely), but she also gives space to other shining stars of the Elizabethan Court and even lesser known figures--the faithful Elizabeth FitzGerald, Lady Clinton; downtrodden and pathetic Lady Mary Grey; the well organized and protective Lady Blanche Parry; lovely Helena Snakenborg, a Swedish girl who arrived on a visit with Princess Cecilia and decided to stay; Lady Douglas Sheffield, a rival for Robert Dudley; Mary Sidney, who unselfishly nursed Elizabeth through smallpox and then caught it herself. From her earliest childhood, Elizabeth was cared for by Lady Margaret Bryan at Hatfield, who became almost a second mother to the very young Elizabeth. She suffered the loss of this mother figure when her half brother Edward came along, but being the child she was, she regrouped and moved forward. Resilient and determined, the young girl survived disease and the stain of being labelled a bastard. She watched as each of her father Henry VIII's wives played out their various roles; she barely lived through the horror of her cousin Lady Jane Grey's brief reign and execution, and she managed a shaky existence in a somewhat love-hate relationship with her half sister Mary. By the time she became Queen of England, her survival skills were well honed, but her reign was plagued continuously by scandals, intrigues, and plots, many of which involved the ladies in her circle. Somewhat ironically, the most troublesome women seemed to be her own cousins and assorted relatives and especially those with claims to the throne: the famous Mary, Queen of Scots; the grasping and ambitious Lady Margaret Douglas; beautiful rival Lettice Knollys, who became the wife of Elizabeth's true love Robert Dudley and was the mother of Elizabeth's last favorite, Robert Devereux; Lady Catherine Grey and her sister Mary, who enraged Elizabeth with their clandestine romances; Lady Arbella Stuart, put forward by her formidable grandmother Bess of Hardwick, as Elizabeth's heir-in-waiting. As far as her ladies in waiting, Elizabeth had high expectations of them in terms of service--often keeping them from husbands and families--and kept a court governed by a strict moral code. She only wanted attractive women serving her, but then could be jealous and spiteful of them, often verbally and physically abusing them if they displeased her (usually by their secret romances and pregnancies), and she often felt betrayed by the likes of Lady Mary Howard, Mary Fitton, Elizabeth Vernon, Bess Throckmorton. As she neared her declining years, her most faithful women were her Boleyn cousins, Katherine Carey Howard and Philadelphia Carey Scrope, as well as Anne Dudley, Countess of Warwick, but even these ladies had hidden agendas and favorites they begged favors for. Her relationships with all these ladies were complex and complicated, with lots of baggage, issues, lies, subterfuge, favoritism, and intrigue galore. Perhaps saddest is the the last section, "The Sun Now Ready to Set," as Elizabeth outlived so many of her closest ladies, and the younger ones showed her very little respect toward the end of her life.Well researched and very readable, Borman makes use of an excellent number of sources, both primary and secondary, and includes some good illustrations. If you're a big Tudor fan, there's not much new here, but this would be a good diversion for those with just a basic knowledge of Elizabeth's life. It's a good distillation of material from various sources presented in a pleasant narrative.

2011-11-14T14:24:00.001-05:00

MARY BOLEYN: THE MISTRESS OF KINGS by Alison Weir, 2011.

Historian Weir has deftly sifted through available material to create this very readable biographical treatment of the "other Boleyn girl": Anne Boleyn's sister Mary. Not much is truly known about Mary--not even a documented portrait or a good description of what she looked like--there's even disagreement over her birth year and whether she was the elder or younger sister of the more famous Anne. Called "a great and infamous whore" by some writers (but not until years later), because of her brief relationships with Francis I and Henry VIII, Weir disputes that reputation, and does a credible job of putting together bits and pieces to give a better picture of the course of Mary's life. Unfortunately, because there is so little written documentation, Weir's narrative is full of speculation and what ifs and maybes. Sources disagree as to events and personalities and dates, and Weir is forced to make decisions based on actual proof and logic, drawing her own conclusions, disregarding sources that are considered unreliable or prejudiced. One longs for a contemporary's diary or journal to turn up and shed some light here! Advertised as the first full biography of Mary, it is a worthy achievement: the author has done much research on the Tudors and her times and is able to place Mary firmly within that context; she adds new information concerning both of Mary's husbands, William Carey and William Stafford; she clears up several misconceptions about Mary's life at the courts of the Netherlands and France; she gives plausible theories as to Mary's life during undocumented times after she left the English court; and she provides an interesting theory concerning the parentage of Mary's two surviving children, Henry and Katherine. Her appendixes concerning Mary's descendants and the portrait identification issues are fascinating and thought-provoking. It is somehow gratifying to know that the oft-maligned and misunderstood Mary's notable descendants include Charles Darwin, Sir Winston Churchill, Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth II, Camilla Parker Bowles, and Prince William of Wales. I have enjoyed other works by this author, and overall, this was a good read, and the family charts, illustrations and notes that were included in this volume were much appreciated, even by this Tudor fan. Weir gets high marks for her effort here, but in the end, Mary Boleyn as a historical figure is still very much in shadow.

2011-10-28T14:21:00.002-04:00

DOUBLE DEXTER by Jeff Lindsay, 2011.

Dexter Morgan is back and in fine form in this sixth novel in the series. Dexter, the professional blood spatter specialist who's always been so careful with arranging his playdates with bad guys to send them into oblivion has been seen in action, but he hasn't a clue who the witness is. And what's worse, someone is pounding cops in the Miami Police Dept. into pudding, and the heat's on his sister, Sergeant Deborah, to find the beast behind the murders ASAP. Dexter, meanwhile, is also having to deal with family matters: his wife Rita is having issues concerning finding a new house for their family and suspiciously imbibing too much wine, Astor is rebelling against braces, and Cody is beginning to need Dex's guiding hand. And then when Dexter realizes that his Witness has become a monster, mirroring himself, and not only that, he has decided to expose Dexter for what he is and kill him, he knows he's in up to his neck in trouble. Dexter is stalked, manipulated, and tormented, knowing all the while that his double is out to do him in. A trip to Key West with his family to attend a home foreclosure auction (at Rita's insistence) leads to a riveting climax that involves not just Dex and the killer, but the kids as well. Lindsay writes with a fast pace and keeps the pages turning--it's dark and witty and wickedly entertaining, if gruesome. Even though Dexter is a horrendous psychopath who murders all these people (but only evilly bad people), he is just so damn likeable, you can't help but root for him. I totally enjoy his banter with his sister (not as much of it in this book, though), his smart comebacks are great, and the whole Cub Scout camping trip episode with Cody was so funny (poison ivy and mosquito bites, anyone?). Some readers have not liked this book as much because Lindsay has made Dexter more human here, but I think this novel adds layers and dimensions to Dexter, Rita, and several other characters, which made it more enjoyable for me. If you haven't given these novels a try, by all means do so, but be warned, Lindsay's powerful mix of black humor and enormously grisly descriptions are not for everyone. I give this one kudos for being a fast read, keeping me totally interested, and for continuing to make Dexter an intriguing character.

2011-10-24T15:52:00.000-04:00

DEATH AND THE VIRGIN QUEEN: ELIZABETH I AND THE DARK SCANDAL THAT ROCKED THE THRONE by Chris Skidmore, 2010.

Skidmore's nonfiction work provides a somewhat startling new look at the mystery surrounding the sensational death of Amy Robsart, wife of Lord Robert Dudley, Queen Elizabeth's well loved favorite, as well as a readable recounting of the matrimonial games of the Virgin Queen. One of the earliest and most troublesome issues after Elizabeth's accession to the throne was finding her an appropriate husband: candidates were sought far and wide and at home, too, and ranged from Edward Courtenay (a Plantagent claimant to the throne) to Prince Eric of Sweden and Archduke Charles of Austria. Elizabeth's deeply personal relationship with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, is discussed in great detail, and Skidmore carefully outlines how much Dudley cared for the queen and how high his ambition was in terms of wanting to be her husband. However, Dudley was already married: to Amy Robsart, a well connected Norfolk squire's daughter, whom he saw very seldom and mostly kept buried in the country.They had married young (they were each 17), and Skidmore posits that they were a love match. Well connected but with little wealth, the couple spent more time apart as Dudley's star began to rise with his appointment as Master of the Horse; Amy receded more into the background. With Dudley's huge involvement in Elizabeth's marriage business, rumors began circulating in 1559 that Amy was ill, that she had breast cancer. Skidmore notes that it was also quite openly stated in correspondence and in conversations that Amy was fearful of being poisoned and that the queen was aware of it. It was even discussed that once his wife was disposed of, Dudley and the queen would then marry.When Amy, who was staying at Cumnor Place for an extended period, was found dead at the bottom of a staircase with her neck broken on Sept. 8, 1560, foul play was immediately suspected, and Dudley and Elizabeth scrambled to save their reputations. And although it was all highly suspicious, Dudley was cleared and Amy's death declared an accident by the inquest, but Elizabeth's relationship with Dudley was forever changed by the event. Skidmore, having access to the recently discovered forensic report, provides an explanation of what it revealed: that Amy not only had a broken neck, but gashes (dyntes) in her head as well, which further fuels speculation. For those unfamiliar with the case, this book reads well and Skidmore does a fine job covering all the points and providing context; for those who know the story, it still will be of interest. While not solving the mystery of Amy Robsart's death, Skidmore's work gives a good account of the facts and opens new avenues of exploration concerning an event that certainly affected Elizabeth I's life profoundly and has intrigued historians and Tudor fans for over 450 years.

2011-10-10T18:27:00.001-04:00

DARK PASSAGES by Kathryn Leigh Scott, 2011.

Scott's sly send-up of her days as a Bunny at the Playboy Club and actress on the popular daytime spook-opera, "Dark Shadows" is a quick and fun read. Young, attractive, just-in-from-Minnesota Meg Harrison wants an acting career in 1960s New York. She finds a job as a cocktail Bunny at the infamous Playboy Club, goes on auditions, hoping to get cast on a new soap called "Dark Passages." Unbeknownst to anyone, Meg is a vampire, but of a different sort--she was born to a vampire mother/human father, sunlight doesn't bother her, she can shape shift, and she doesn't have to drink blood, well, not much anyway. She also has a guardian spirit, Haddie, one of the Club's late clients, watching out for her. Trying to make it without using her vampire powers, she's thrilled when she's cast as Margie, the waitress, on "Dark Passages," gets a small apartment, hangs out with friends, loves exploring New York (both in her human and vampiric forms), and enjoys her co-workers (especially Ian, who's playing the soap's new vampire character, Sebastian Stanhope). But all is not peaceful: her life is complicated by booze, drugs, her back home boyfriend, Eric (who ships out to Vietnam), an unexpected pregnancy, and a beautiful blond witch from Memphis named Camilla Nesbitt. For some reason, Camilla has had a grudge against Meg's family for a long time, and now she's gunning for Meg. When the show becomes a smash TV hit and the cast excitedly begins filming a movie based on it, the pressure intensifies in the continuing drama of Camilla's and Meg's battle. Will Meg's powers be strong enough to vanquish the lethal Camilla? Tune in and see! This is at once silly and nostalgic, filled with insider info and humor. Just plain fun!

2011-10-09T16:24:00.000-04:00

SARUM by Edward Rutherfurd, 1987.

Sprawling, compelling and entertaining saga of the area of England famous for Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral. I'd read another couple of Rutherfurd's novels before this one. His books remind me a lot of James A. Michener's in the way they are constructed: he generally takes an area and begins his story with prehistoric times and moves forward, providing episodes of the area's history, usually involving multiple families and characters. In this case, Rutherfurd draws on the splendid history of Salisbury Plain, and intertwines the lives of five families through several thousand years. I found it a dense read, but very involving, and for the most part, quite interesting. I enjoyed learning about how Stonehenge was likely created and the likelihood of human sacrifices being held there; the early burial sites of the tribes (called barrows); about sheep herding and breeding; the rise and development of fulling mills; the effect of the Black Death on the area; how the English Civil War divided area families; the occupations the families took up, like stonemasons, farmers, and fullers, etc. At 900 pages, it's a huge investment of a reader's time, but it honestly is totally worth the effort. The best and worst of humanity shows up in these pages: dishonor, betrayal, murder, acceptance, love, witchcraft, heresy, lust, double-dealing, wars, piracy, religious persecution, social activism, political upheaval, greed, outright manipulation, etc. It was interesting to see the Shockley, Mason, Godfrey, Porteus/Porter and Wilson family fortunes rise and fall, based on cunning, laziness, greed, misperceptions and misinformation, as well as secrets and lies. Some episodes were better than others: I particularly liked the section in which the cathedral was built; the period of Roman rule of the various tribes was informative; the time of the brutal Viking raids on the land was quite thrilling; Bloody Mary's reign saw Abigail Mason and her husband Peter caught up in the terror of heretic burnings; the Civil War era had Margaret Shockley and her brothers divided into Cavalier and Puritan sympathies; the Industrial Revolution brought about huge changes in the fortunes of the Shockleys, and the Wilsons morphed into the Forests and gained a baronetcy. Filled with hundreds of characters, thank goodness the author included a family chart by time period to help keep them straight. Plenty of period details and historical events provide ample background and opportunity for his characters to come to life. An enormously rich and detailed narrative of a massively important area of Britain. Recommended.

2011-10-07T10:17:00.002-04:00

Watched "Gettysburg" over the past weekend, based on Michael Shaara's prize-winning novel, Killer Angels. Odd when I realize that it came out on the big screen in 1993, and I had never seen it; couldn't believe it had been that long a time. It's an enormously LONG movie (over 4 hours), but well worth the investment of time. I actually watched it in two parts, which I think it was a good idea to have a break in there. An extensive rendering of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863, this was filmed entirely in Gettysburg and Adams County, Pa., which greatly added to the authentic feel of the movie. Several storylines intertwine among both the Federal and Confederate troops, and the viewer comes to know Colonel Joshua Chamberlain of Maine and his brother Thomas, General James Longstreet, Major General George E. Pickett, and General Robert E. Lee, among others. Primarily, though, the movie is about the great battle, which was truly a turning point of the war. Much screen time was expended on the horrors of Devil's Den and the various issues that existed in Chamberlain's troops--a lack of men, lack of ammunition, lack of supplies, and the knowledge that they were the very end of the line and could not under any circumstances, retreat, or all would be lost. So many men died on that battlefield, and that loss was clearly portrayed with shots of dead and dying men, some blood shown, but definitely restrained in terms of gore (when cannons are fired, you don't see someone's head get blown off--I know it happened, but I don't really need it to be that graphic). The film is fairly well cast, with many familiar faces: Jeff Daniels and C. Thomas Howell are entertaining as the Chamberlain brothers, Tom Berenger is good as Longstreet. Daniels' portrayal of Chamberlain is outstanding and sympathetic and one of the better characters in the movie. I was not impressed by Martin Sheen's portrayal of Lee--it just didn't sit right for some reason, not sure why. Perhaps my idea of Lee's personality just isn't the same as the screenwriter's. Stephen Lang as Pickett was awesome, if a little over the top, but definitely entertaining whenever he was on screen--his huge shock and fury at losing most of his men in the famous charge is totally compelling, and Richard Jordan as Brigadier General Armistead gave a rather touching portrait of a man definitely in conflict over a friendship with a colleague fighting on the opposite side. I enjoyed seeing Billy Campbell, Patrick James Stuart, George Lazenby, Sam Elliott, and Buck Taylor in good supporting roles. And Kevin Conway was excellent in the role of the Irish sergeant fighting alongside Col. Chamberlain. The accuracy of the costumes, the care taken with the battle depiction, the shifting points of view, the depth of characterization, the powerful emotional struggles, were all evident in this film. All in all, a very well done picture, accurately depicting a pivotal battle during the tumultuous era of the Civil War, well worth the time. Best of all, the viewer really doesn't have to be a Civil War authority/nut in order to enjoy it and maybe learn something from it.

2011-09-20T12:15:00.002-04:00

THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN by Kate Morton, 2009.

A sprawling story spanning three generations, involving an abandoned child in 1913 Australia, a talented writer of fairy tales, and a granddaughter who discovers a new life for herself on the coast of Cornwall. When a little girl arrives at Brisbane all alone and unable to even say her name, the dockmaster and his wife adopt her, name her Nell and raise her as their own. On her 21st birthday, she's told the truth about her adoption and given a little suitcase with a few clothes and a lovely old book of fairy tales that had been in her possession when she arrived in Australia.The knowledge changes her very life, and she begins a search to find out about her past. Following slender clues, her quest leads her to the Cornish coast in England, to Blackhurst Manor, the Mountrachet family, and a dark web of secrets and lies and false hopes. As she learns more concerning the "Authoress," Eliza Makepeace, who wrote the beautiful fairy tales; the handsome artist Alexander Walker; the maidservant Mary, the overbearing, unkind Adeline and her daughter Rose, Nell realizes that her story is more tangled than she could have realized. She manages to piece together much of her past and comes close to solving the mystery of her identity, but it's left to her granddaughter, Cassandra, to discover the dark secret of the forgotten garden at Cliff Cottage on the estate and at long last put all the pieces together and solve the puzzle. Beautifully written (if a bit overlong), with an involving narrative, rich with interesting and almost Dickensian characters (Mansell and the Swindells most definitely), the reader gets sucked into the mystery almost immediately.The relationship between the cousins--the talented, determined and loyal Eliza Makepeace and the lovely but doomed Rose Mountrachet--is excellently portrayed. This is a book stuffed with characters and events, and if at times the shifting of the time periods was a bit confusing, the story clicks with an almost Gothic atmosphere in the Cornish setting, the characters are well drawn and the storyline intriguing. I found it an entertaining, at times comforting sort of read, much like the old fashioned sagas of Dorothy Eden or Susan Howatch.

2011-09-13T12:59:00.002-04:00

THE RESERVOIR by John Milliken Thompson, 2011.

Based on a real murder case that occurred in Richmond, Virginia, in 1885, this novel quite ingeniously puts the reader right there, involving them in the events and the characters' lives from the very beginning of the narrative. On a March evening in 1885, young Fannie Lillian Madison's body is found drowned in a reservoir near Hollywood Cemetery. It is soon revealed that the victim was also bruised on the head and pregnant. Investigation soon brings to light Lillie's somewhat checkered past, including her unsavory family life, and leads to the main suspect, Thomas Judson Cluverius, a young, ambitious lawyer from King William County. It was common knowledge Tommie was involved with Lillie, as well as with pretty Nola Bray. And furthermore, Tommie's older brother Willie, a quiet farmer, had been in a relationship with Lillie before Tommie. As clues are uncovered concerning that cold night's events, Tommie is charged with the murder, and the city is in the throes of excitement over the trial. But is Tommie guilty? Was Lillie's death a murder or was it suicide? Was someone else involved? Of what importance is the little watch key? And the torn letter? Tommie keeps changing his version of events, so much so that it's questioned by those around him as to just what is truth and what is not.Thompson, with straightforward storytelling, moves the narrative along, doing a credible job of presenting the known facts, as well as filling in gaps with creative imaginings, allowing the reader to draw his own conclusions. Using available documentation, including contemporary newspapers and court records,Thompson provides riveting courtroom scenes, with numerous witnesses and lawyers taking stage. His characters, like Aunt Jane Tunstall, Howard Madison, William Crump and Colonel Aylett, are all real people, and imaginatively brought to life in the course of the story. Set against the backdrop of rural, peaceful King William County and the prosperous city of Richmond, just twenty years after the Civil War, Thompson's story is an excellent rendering of a case that captured the public's imagination during those post-war days. Well done, as both an historical novel and a crime suspense story. It would make a for a good book discussion.

The Book is Always Better than the Movie: "The Help"

2011-09-09T12:28:00.001-04:00

After some deliberation, I went to a matinee showing of the movie version of "The Help" on Labor Day with my wife and daughter. Having read Kathryn Stockett's book, I fully expected that the movie wouldn't be as involving or moving. However, it came pretty close.The casting was very good, perfect shooting locations, and the script was literate with some great dialogue and well done set pieces, some wonderful humor, and for the most part it stuck to the story and kept its heart intact.Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer were well cast as the two main black characters, Aibilene and Minny. Emma Stone was competent as the third lead, Skeeter; Bryce Dallas Howard was fine if a little over-the-top as Hilly. I enjoyed seeing other actors in minor roles: Brian Kerwin as Skeeter's father, Sissy Spacek as Miz Walters, Leslie Jordan as the newspaper's editor, Mary Steenburgen as Skeeter's New York book editor, etc. My quibbles with the film, as with any book made into film, always concern why certain changes were made, and that's just my nature. I felt the story had been softened somewhat, just didn't have as much of an edge to it as the book; the huge sense of fear these women had of being discovered was only hinted at; another concerned the character change in Skeeter's mother, and another was the way the relationship between Skeeter and Stuart was handled. However, I only question these because I only recently read the novel, those who have not read it or read it ages ago may not have problems with these things. I would still recommend the film as an interesting depiction of the South on the cusp of far-reaching changes, with characters either struggling to resist those changes or to embrace them and grow. Definitely I will remember the hilarious chocolate pie incident in both the book and movie!

2011-08-29T20:08:00.000-04:00

THE ISLAND BENEATH THE SEA by Isabel Allende, 2010.

Spanning the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Haiti and New Orleans, Allende's novel follows the life of Zarite, called Tete, born on the island of Saint-Dominigue, a slave and concubine who wishes to take control of her own life and destiny no matter what the cost.
In 1770, young and foppish Toulouse Valmorain arrives on the island and begins running his father's plantation, Saint-Lazare, a sugarcane plantation of lush natural beauty and terrible brutality. When Valmorain, with little hope of ever returning to live in France, decides to marry the lovely Spaniard Eugenia del Solar, sister of his best friend and business partner Sancho, he asks his current mistress, Violette Boisier, to purchase a maid for his bride. Thus, the endearing and smart nine year old Tete, enters Violette's home and is trained as a domestic for Eugenia. Tete, an eager sort who comforts herself by dancing to African drums and learning about voodoo loa, becomes an indispensable part of Valmorain's life. As the years pass, Tete becomes far more important to her master than he does to her. Their lives fatally intertwine and involve others: the gorgeous and knowledgeable Violette, headstrong Gambo, guardian-like Loula, the vindictive Hortense Guizot, the kindly Dr. Parmentier, the witchlike Tante Rose, and Capt. Etienne Relais, who loves and tries to protect his family unto death. When the French Revolution rocks their world, creating a stunning and bloody revolution on their island with the rise of Toussaint L'ouverture and necessitating several characters' escape to New Orleans, Tete sees a chance for having her enduring wish for freedom granted. There, amidst the raucous multicultural city, with its slave markets, smuggling, governmental chaos, and famous quadroon balls, she renews her acquaintance with the free Zacharie. And at long last, after years of violence, childbirth, love, lies and betrayal, lust, slavery, cruelty, and loss, she finally finds peace and joy with the Zacharie and achieves a destiny greater than she had dreamed.
An interesting read, definitely of a literary bent, at times not easy to follow, with a huge cast of characters, and enough drama for several books. Allende's portrayal of the determined Tete is creative and sympathetic, she is a vigorous survivor with a heart and unquenchable spirit, able to rise above unimaginable suffering. Allende's depictions of New Orleans and Haiti are accurate and lively, and setting Tete's riveting story against these backdrops added much to the novel. For those who enjoy a lengthy saga about courage and hope against all odds. My only quibble: some of Allende's writing didn't seem well translated and made for awkward reading. Otherwise, a literate and engrossing (if sometimes slow) read.

2011-08-14T15:13:00.000-04:00

THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON by Sarah Addison Allen, 2010.

Picked this off a shelf knowing it would be a light summer read. Having read Allen's first two novels, I figured this would be similar: small town filled with quirky, odd characters, old secrets, food, long lost love, and a hint of magical realism. The main story revolves around two characters: Emily Benedict, who comes to Mullaby, NC to stay with her grandfather Vance Shelby(known as the "Giant of Mullaby" because of his extreme height), and Julia Winterson, who returned home over a year before to run her dead father's restaurant for a while with intent to sell it and move back to Baltimore, leaving behind all her memories of the place. Emily, who arrives with many questions about her mother's life in Mullaby and why she left, has strange experiences (including ethereal lights glowing in the woods) that create more mysteries and attract a local boy, Win Coffey, who has big secret of his own. Julia, who bakes cakes every day because of hunky blond Sawyer Alexander, and tries to resist re-igniting a long ago relationship with him. In the end, secrets are revealed, relationships change, and everyone's on the way to happiness. It's clever and fun and a nice read, a good break from heavier reading. Allen has found her little niche with these books and she doesn't disappoint. Good choice for the beach or backyard or a porch swing.

2011-08-08T15:50:00.000-04:00

KNIFE MUSIC by David Carnoy, 2008.

A decent medical/legal thriller that kept me turning the pages. In sunny California, successful doctor saves a young girl's life in the OR after she has a car accident, and then some months later, she commits suicide.Why? Kristen Kroiter was only 17 when she killed herself. Police detectives, including the handicapped Hank Madden, question Dr. Ted Cogan about Kristen, asking some very personal questions about their relationship. It seems Kristen left a journal with some very intimate passages in it concerning him. What? The doctor, who has a reputation as a womanizer, is in a lot of trouble. But just who is the victim here? Broken relationships, trust, frat parties, drunkenness, jealousy, and fantasizing all play a part in this twisting story. At times somewhat intense and certainly suspenseful, with several plot twists, I found this a good and entertaining read.

2011-07-22T14:45:00.000-04:00

AWAIT YOUR REPLY by Dan Chaon, 2009.

A book I thought I was going to enjoy more than I did. Three seemingly unrelated stories become bound together in this story of identity theft, trust, and loyalty. Miles Cheshire is searching for his twin brother, whom he hasn't seen in twenty years; Lucy Lattimore leaves town with her teacher; and Ryan Schuyler, after receiving some shocking news decides to remake himself. This was intriguing and totally chilling in terms of the ease with which someone can disappear and steal identities and become other people, but at times I found it very confusing and meandering. Lots of references to Internet and Facebook, etc., the characters were interesting, and I wanted to know more, but by the end I was past caring what happened to them--I think because I got lost somewhere within the multiple storylines. Maybe I just didn't quite get it. Anyway, not a very satisfying read for me, but someone else might enjoy this type of story--part thriller, part drama, part mystery.

2011-07-18T09:42:00.000-04:00

BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP by S. J. Watson, 2011.

One of those thrillers that just takes hold and won't let you go! Fifty-something Christine Lucas goes to sleep every night, and the next morning discovers all her memories are gone. Totally. She has to begin again each day to piece together her past. She's been told she's an amnesiac due to an accident years before when she was in her twenties. Unknown to her husband, Ben, she's seeing a doctor, who advises her to keep a journal, but recommends hiding it. Writing in it and then re-reading it every day, spurs more feelings and memories--of a child, of having a loyal girlfriend, of publishing a novel. And as more memories come back in dreams and sudden flashes, Chris becomes more aware that everything is not as it seems, that Ben is not telling her the whole truth. Compelled to find out her past, she becomes more determined to discover the truth about her life, but realizes there's an element of danger involved as well, as someone doesn't want her to remember everything--at least not in the way it actually happened. Watson keeps the pages turning with intense writing, high suspense, and an unexpected conclusion. Totally absorbing and riveting.

2011-07-15T14:25:00.000-04:00

DARK ANGELS by Karleen Koen, 2006.

Set in the seventeenth century courts of King Charles II and Louis XIV, the story concerns Alice Verney, a determined and controlling Restoration lovely who wants to make a successful marriage. The attractive and spoiled Alice tends to manipulate everyone around her: her father, Sir Thomas, her friends Barbara Bragge and Gracen Howard, even Queen Catherine. When she doesn't get her own way, she sulks or completely writes you off. Stubborn, foolish, scheming, and shallow is pretty much how Alice comes across in Koen's huge novel. Will she or won't she marry the much older Duke of Balmoral? is the question running through the book. Or will she become sensible and marry the fellow she's truly in love with, Captain Richard Saylor, who thinks he's actually in love with King Charles' French mistress until he comes to the shocking realization that it's Alice he really wants? Will poor Catherine of Braganza be poisoned--or worse--divorced for her lack a child by the king? Will the evil poisoner who murdered the king's precious sister Henriette of France strike again? Does the reader care? Court intrigue, manipulations, poisonings, pregnancies, brothels, infidelity, fabulous wealth, terrible poverty, love, loyalty, treachery and betrayal, maliciousness, secret romances, and so many characters that one tires of it. I really wanted to like this book, as I'm a huge fan of the Stuarts and their times. However, I found most of the characters unsympathetic and shallow or cartoonishly drawn, couldn't really get involved with any of them. I found the whole thing bloated, overblown, and uninvolving, and yet I kept reading because I hoped it would get better. I ended up being disappointed that I had wasted so much time on this. Maybe if I'd read her earlier books first, it would have made a difference. But as this is considered a prequel to those, it should stand alone, and yet there were times when I felt there were things I was missing because I hadn't read Koen's other novels. Not something I'd recommend, or maybe I would for those who like those long romantic sagas that are essentially costume pieces with myriad characters and very little depth.

2011-07-14T19:10:00.000-04:00

PEOPLE OF THE BOOK by Geraldine Brooks, 2008.

Brooks takes on the challenge of writing about a beautifully wrought book (a Jewish haggadah) that moves through various characters' hands over the years from 1480s Spain to war-torn Bosnia in 1996. Her major character, Hanna Heath, is a rare books conservator who develops a special connection with this manuscript, known for its exquisite workmanship and curious history. Hanna is called in to perform some conservation work on this book and in the process, discovers artifacts within the book's pages--a hair, a stain, grains of salt, part of an insect wing, etc. Brooks takes us on a journey, piecing together the book's history from these various items. The overarching story of the conservator is interwoven with tales of the book. Each of these tales answers the question of how each of the tiny artifacts came to be found within the book. One episode describes how a Muslim in Sarajevo during World War II risks his life to save the book; another is about the last golden days of 1890s Vienna; still another contains the horrors of the Inquisition, and the last of the book's stories is set in Seville and describes the life of the young artist living in a Moorish house who created the luminous and unusual drawings for the book. Hanna's own research and investigation into the mysteries of the book lead her to questions of forgery and betrayal and cause dramatic changes in her own life. Based on a true event, Brooks has done an excellent job with this one. I found it entertaining, educational, and thought-provoking reading.

2011-07-07T16:28:00.000-04:00

WENCH by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, 2010.

An interesting and often disturbing novel set at a summer resort, Tawawa House, in Ohio during the 1850s, a place where Southern white men could bring their enslaved black concubines. Near Xenia, Ohio, the resort is an idyllic retreat, and provides privacy to these men and their mistresses. Three women become acquainted there: Lizzie, Sweet, and Reenie, and remain friends through several years of visits, reuniting and sharing news and information about each others' lives at each visit. Even though they are aware that Tawawa is in free territory, they don't think much about it until a new visitor arrives--Mawu--and starts talking of escaping to freedom. It's a huge thing to consider for them all, as running away would mean leaving behind everything they know--families, children, friends, as well as breaking the emotional ties to the men who enslave them. The author has done an excellent job with the details of the period, her characters, black and white, are well drawn and full blooded, and I was totally engaged by the story of the trials and tribulations of these women. It's a story of great courage, strength, psychological as well as physical bondage, loyalty, and love. At times shocking and brutal, the narrative moves swiftly, and the reader is carried right along to the end. Very worthwhile read about a little known episode (Tawawa House really did exist--it later became a college for blacks).

2011-07-05T08:59:00.000-04:00

MY HUSBAND'S SWEETHEARTS by Bridget Asher, 2008.

Silly but somewhat diverting piece of chick-lit that reads very quickly and is not that memorable. A woman discovers her husband Artie has cheated on her, leaves him, then finds out he is on his deathbed, returns to take care of him. She discovers his black book, and on a lark, calls all of his old girlfriends and tells them to come and take a turn at his deathbed. Somewhat shockingly, they do, and in the process of their visits, Lucy (the wife) becomes close to two of them, Eleanor and Elspa, as well as with Artie's long lost illegitimate son John (who has some secrets as well). Alliances are formed, secrets shared, there's forgiveness, blah, blah, blah. Some clever dialogue and witty remarks, but mostly it's kind of a drippy relationship story and not that convincing. Quick and forgettable.

2011-06-30T19:13:00.000-04:00

THE REAL WIZARD OF OZ: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF L. FRANK BAUM by Rebecca Loncraine, 2009.

An articulate account of a quite fascinating and lively American writer, the creator of the Wizard of Oz stories. Born and raised in New York State, but resided in such far flung areas as South Dakota, Chicago, and Hollywood, Lyman Frank Baum was one of a large and somewhat unconventional family. This biography, by an English scholar, pulls together the varied facets of Baum's life as an actor, playwright, storekeeper, oilman, salesman, and author--a life of failures and successes, fortunes and bankruptcy--and presents them in an easy to follow narrative. She has taken available research and made use of several special collections of Baum material in writing this account, and manages to show how different pieces of Baum's life truly affected his writing of the Oz stories as well as other works--he wrote other series and novels under at least half a dozen other names in the course of his career. His marriage to Maud Gage, daughter of a prominent feminist, and the raising of the four sons is covered in depth. The author is very good with her descriptions of major influences on Baum--the bleak Dakota prairies, the Native American troubles of the West (Wounded Knee took place during Baum's residence in Dakota), family issues with various siblings and relatives, the Civil War veterans, and how he incorporated many of these things into his stories. Loncraine also dispels several of the myths concerning Baum--for instance, the name "Oz" was not taken from his filing cabinet as has been told before, but actually sprang from his own imagination during the writing of the original story.
I would recommend this for anyone who's a fan of the Oz series or movie, or as simply a good popular biography of a fascinating individual who in fact created the first wholly American fairy tale.

2011-06-30T13:47:00.000-04:00

THE POSTMISTRESS by Sarah Blake, 2010.

I found this to be a rather ho-hum novel. I enjoyed the writer's depictions of the bombings of London during 1940-41 and her descriptions of small town life on Cape Cod, Massachusetts during the pre-World War II era, but I found a lot of her writing to be just so-so, and the characters not all that compelling.The plot centers around three women: the postmistress of Franklin, Mass., Iris; Emma Fitch, the young and fragile wife of that small town's doctor, and Frankie Bard, a woman reporter in Europe who is trying to make Americans aware of what is happening overseas.These three had definite issues in their lives that they struggled to deal with, including pregnancy, midlife, workplace acceptance, loss, and emotional heartache. Parts of this were very good: the accident that befalls Emma's husband, the awfulness of the trainloads of refugees out of Germany and France, the horrific bombings at night in London, sirens blaring. But the story as a whole just didn't leave me feeling much for any of it. In the end, I don't think this book was worthy of all the hype it received.

2011-06-21T16:19:00.000-04:00

"Green Lantern"(2011): my son took me to see this movie on Father's Day. Remembering that I had enjoyed the old comics and had read about the movie, I was curious enough to go. Ryan Reynolds was much better in the role of Hal Jordan than I expected, and there was good chemistry between him and Blake Lively, who played Hal's love interest, Carol Ferris. The story is quite simple really-- after tangling with the accidently released dreaded Parallax, a dying alien, one of many Green Lanterns, heads to Earth to find the next Green Lantern. His ring chooses none other than Hal Jordan, a brash, irresponsible pilot. Hal, after understandably initial reluctance, is taken for training on planet Oa, discovers the powers of the ring and the responsibility of being a Green Lantern, and when others fail, must save Earth from the menacing fear-fed creature that is Parallax.There's the added subplot of a loser scientist who becomes connected to Parallax and creates further problems for Jordan. Things all work out for our hero, and there's a set up for a sequel, too. Overall it's a smashing good time--lots of great effects, chases, crashes, explosions and fights, super fun and excitement, all moving at a rapid pace. I went into it not expecting anything, but came out of it impressed and having enjoyed it. A surprisingly good summertime adventure flick that not only has lots of adventure and action but also decent acting and an actual story. It was worth my visit to the theater.

2011-06-17T10:45:00.000-04:00

NOAH'S COMPASS by Anne Tyler, 2009.

Never read an Anne Tyler novel until this one. Read several reviews and thought it might be a good novel to discuss in my book discussion groups.Tyler is a popular author, and now I see why. She has a winning writing style, it almost seems effortless, and she has a knack for writing about everyday things in a believable way. Liam Pennywell, the main character in this contemporary novel, lives in Baltimore and is forced to take early retirement at age 61 from his teaching job in a private school. Not particularly upset by it, he decides to shed most of his possessions and moves to a small apartment in a different part of the city. He goes to bed one night and wakes up the next day in the hospital, with no idea why he is there or how he got there. Disturbed by his difficulties in remembering what happened, he goes on a quest to find out and ends up making other discoveries about himself and others along the way that are quite unexpected.Tyler's characters are wonderfully drawn: Liam is likeable, memorable, so true to life and easy to relate to. All of Tyler's characters are interesting: Liam's ex-wife Barbara, his daughters Xanthe, Louise, and Kitty (who wants to live with him), his friend Bundy, Kitty's somewhat deadbeat boyfriend Damian, his young grandson Jonah, and Liam's sort of girlfriend, Eunice.They are flawed and human and funny--Tyler uses humor to great advantage. Her portrait of Liam is sympathetic and interesting and seems very true to life in terms of someone who is facing and attempting to cope with the final phase of his own life. Totally enjoyable.

2011-06-08T11:05:00.000-04:00

PEACE LIKE A RIVER by Leif Enger, 2001.

Set in 1962-63, this is a coming of age story about an asthmatic 11 year old boy. Reuben Land lives with his somewhat unconventional father, his older brother Davy, and younger sister Swede in a small town in Minnesota. His father, a school janitor and deeply religious man, has kept the family together after the mom walked out years before. Davy, a tough and tender 16 year old, protects the younger siblings. Rube's sister is enthralled and fascinated by Western novels and stories, and spend much time writing her own, as well as poetry. When Davy shoots two teenage bullies who have invaded their home and threatened the family, he is arrested and jailed, but escapes and flees to parts unknown during the harsh winter. The rest of the family decides to leave town after the dad loses his job, towing a new Airstream, to search for Davy. They have unusual adventures and meet some interesting people as they ride off into the Bad Lands of the Dakotas. They are eventually taken in by a lone woman, Roxanna, who has personal issues of her own and becomes attached to the family. As the search for Davy intensifies, Rube learns some very hard lessons concerning love and forgiveness.
I found this novel a bit difficult to read, I think mainly because I didn't care for the writing style. Too choppy, abrupt, didn't have a good flow to it for my taste. Enger's descriptions of the winters in that part of the country made me feel cold all the time, and the interactions between Rube and Swede were interesting and often funny. But I just wasn't as involved with any of them as I could have wished. I was interested enough in the story and in the characters enough to read to the end, but it was not a totally satisfying reading experience. It was okay, but I was glad when I was done with it.

2011-06-04T14:29:00.001-04:00

ELIZABETH I by Margaret George, 2011.

A huge, sprawling saga spanning the later part of Elizabeth Tudor's reign from 1588-1603. I have always been a fan of long and involving historical novels of this nature, and of Margaret George's in particular, and this one did not disappoint me. Ms. George knows her history and she knows how to weave and spin out her stories, involving the reader and keeping their attention throughout. In this novel, Elizabeth herself narrates the bulk of the story, but interwoven with her narrative is that of her most famous cousin and rival, Lettice Knollys. These two make a good counterpoint to each other: Elizabeth's and Lettice's lives became forever intertwined when young Lettice came to Elizabeth's court and became involved with Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, and Elizabeth's love. After the Queen refuses to marry him, and Lettice's first husband dies, Dudley and Lettice secretly marry. Once their marriage is revealed, Elizabeth, hurt and enraged, banished them both from court; she forgave Dudley and recalled him, but Elizabeth swore she'd never forgive Lettice for what she considered her betrayal. When this novel opens, the Spanish Armada has left Spain and is threatening England's future. By the end of the novel, Lettice, still alive and residing quietly in the country in 1634, is reminiscing to her grandchildren about her life and that of her glittering and powerful cousin.

George quite simply brings the entire Elizabethan era to life in her writing. Her use of period detail is wonderful and adds so much to the novel's meaning, and she writes so elegantly and vibrantly about the many colorful characters of that glorious era. The story is filled with enthralling people and events: the Armadas (there were four); the continuing problems in Ireland with the O'Neill; Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins and their piracy against Spain; Sir Walter Raleigh and his attempts to found a colony in the New World of Virginia; the Irish heroine Grace O'Malley; the Cecils, father and son, who ran the English government between them; Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, John Donne and other literary lights; the mystical Dr. John Dee; Sir Francis Walsingham, who managed the Queen's elaborate spy network; Robert Devereux, Lettice's son and Elizabeth's last, and most tragic, favorite, and so many others. This is a rich, dense, and juicy book--it contains among its pages enough court scandals, gossip, political intrigue, executions, religious strife, and financial dealings to fill several books. At the center of everything is Elizabeth, always in the thick of it, always thinking and puzzling and scheming and attempting to maintain her power and control at all costs. And in the background was Lettice, the one woman she could not control.

George creates some wonderful scenes within this story, fictional and otherwise: Elizabeth at Tilbury speaking to the troops gathered against the Armada; Elizabeth's meeting with the wild and unruly Grace O'Malley; Elizabeth spontaneously attending a goose fair while on a Progress; Lettice juggling relationships with three different men, but only truly in love with one of them; Lettice and Shakespeare discussing several of his plays as he writes them, and Lettice's attempts to help her son, Robert, and slowly coming to the dreadful realization that he is doomed. One of the most moving sections is near the end of Elizabeth's life, when the aging queen and her cousins Catherine Carey and Lettice Knollys arrange to meet at Hever Castle, the ancestral Boleyn home, never visited by any of the three before. Here, amidst a secret bower once used by Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Lettice and Elizabeth come to an understanding, lay to rest old rivalries and ghosts, and finally find forgiveness in each other.

In this book, Margaret George definitely used all her writing skills to bring these larger than life figures to life in these pages. I thoroughly enjoyed the witty dialogue, clever exchanges and asides, and humor that she injected into the lives of her characters. The scene in which Elizabeth's godson John Harington installs the newly invented water closet in Elizabeth's chamber is quite funny in its description. In every detail, George has created a believable world long gone and made these real historical people human in every way. She has outdone herself totally and written a meticulously researched and powerful novel about two women who were alike in so many ways--looks, intelligence, wit, strength of character, charm, courage, craftiness--and manages to give an entertaining and complex portrait of how they lived--the choices they made (or were made for them), the different paths they followed, and how their lives intertwined and played out across the broad and richly woven tapestry of their world. Enjoyable for historical fiction fans, especially those of the Elizabethan period. Highly recommended.

2011-05-31T19:58:00.001-04:00

CALEB'S CROSSING by Geraldine Brooks, 2011.

Beautifully written and carefully researched, Brooks has penned an eloquent story concerning the little known Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, a Waupanaug Indian from Martha's Vineyard, and the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Told from the point of view of the spirited Bethia Mayfield, daughter of a Calvinist missionary preacher, life on Martha's Vineyard during the seventeenth century was often harsh and hard, even though the island itself held wonderful natural beauty. Bethia meets Caleb, the son of a chieftain, unexpectedly one day when they are both children, and because of the strictness of the times, continue meeting in secret as they become young adults. Bethia learns much from Caleb about the wonders of the island, and Caleb, offered the opportunity of tutoring with Reverend Mayfield along with Mayfield's son Makepeace and another native boy, Joel, sees a chance to become a missionary to his people through education. This opportunity, as well as the minister's mission work, disturbs the island's medicine men, and a struggle over the old and new ways ensues in which Caleb becomes the prize...Caleb eventually finds himself at Harvard, studying Latin and Greek alongside scions of colonial leaders, and Bethia, who longs for an education herself, is summoned to go to Cambridge along with her brother and support his efforts at Harvard. As Caleb undergoes the struggle of trying to find his place in this new arena, Bethia tries desperately to find her own destiny in a rigid society in which few women have a voice. Brooks writes wonderfully well, providing excellent period details of the two cultures, using language of the time period, and keeps her storylines seamlessly interwoven. My only complaint is that because so little facts are known about Caleb and Brooks chooses to have Bethia tell the story, I never felt truly involved with Caleb or that I knew him as a person. Perhaps if Caleb had been the narrator it would have been more meaningful. Even so, overall, I found this a thoughtful, interesting, and provocative story of one Native American's hope of living peacefully with the colonists and his own people through education and faith in God.

2011-05-21T10:09:00.000-04:00

NIGHT SEASON by Chelsea Cain, 2011.

Another pulse-pounding, page-turning thriller featuring Det. Archie Sheridan and reporter Susan Ward. This time around, the Willamette River is flooding Portland and several drowning victims have been found. Yeah, well, what's unusual about these flood victims that they were poisoned and died before they were put into the river. So another serial killer is stalking people in the city, and first Archie's detective colleague Henry becomes a target, and then Susan unwittingly places herself in the killer's path. Thrown into the mix is the discovery of a missing boy, kidnapped several years earlier and who seems to have a connection to the killer, and a skeleton is unearthed that is sixty years old, dating to an earlier catastrophic flood that wiped out an entire town. So many questions: what kind of poison is being used? Why was Henry targeted? Who is the boy that keeps slipping away from custody? What do the tiny keys that are found on each victim mean? And most of all, who is committing these murders and why? Cain keeps the suspense high, weaves her several storylines together admirably and really kept this reader interested. I didn't even miss the fact that Beauty Killer Gretchen Lowell from the previous books is only mentioned in this novel. If you're a fan of crime thrillers, Cain's books (this one is the fourth in the series) are really fast paced and suspenseful. I find them highly entertaining and great reads in between other types of books.

2011-05-19T17:57:00.000-04:00

Took my wife to see the new film version of "Jane Eyre" for Mother's Day. Although she enjoyed it immensely, something about it bothered me, but I can't quite figure out what. Maybe it was the leads, they just didn't seem to click. The actress playing the adult Jane was very good, but didn't think much of the actor playing Rochester. The film was quite beautifully filmed, the scenes of the moors were stunning, the sets and costumes were well done, the script was intelligently adapted. Judi Dench was wonderful as Mrs. Fairfax (although the role was definitely beefed up for Dench), and Jamie Bell was quite good as St. John Rivers. There were, of course, things left out that were in other filmed versions of the book, but hey, you can't leave everything in or the length would be ridiculous. I'd say that although I think my favorite version is still the Susannah York/George C. Scott one with Joan Fontaine/Orson Welles a close second, this one is worth viewing. Overall, this is a fine film adaptation of an enduring classic novel.

2011-05-14T14:01:00.000-04:00

THE OTHER QUEEN by Philippa Gregory, 2008.

Boring and dull and totally disappointing. How any author could make Mary Queen of Scots so boring is beyond me. Gregory sets this novel during the years 1568-1572, when Mary has fled Scotland into England and becomes Elizabeth I's guest under the charge of George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and his formidable countess, Bess of Hardwick, who are still newlyweds. Pleased to be chosen for such an honor, they soon realize that no sooner is Mary established at Tutbury than plots and intrigues begin swirling around her. Broken promises, threats of rebellion in the North and a Spanish invasion, attempted rescues, secrets and codes and spies at every turn quickly become part of the household's daily life. Shallow characterizations, monotonous dialogue, and far too much repetition by having three narrators go over the same events make this a sluggish and unsatisfying story. Too much focus on Mary's beauty and Shrewsbury's weakness and Bess' penny-pinching--none of the characters were sympathetic. It became tedious to keep reading how the Shrewburys were bankrupting themselves by supporting this other queen and her court and they were getting no reimbursement from Elizabeth. Historical details abound, Gregory is good with description, but the pace is just too slow and the whole thing just so uninvolving. If I had not been recuperating from a recent illness, homebound, with plenty of time to read, I would have dropped this one after about fifty pages and moved on. I can't recommend it.

2011-05-14T13:48:00.000-04:00

GRAVE GOODS by Ariana Franklin, 2009.

This novel is Adelia Aguilar's third (and last, as the author has died) outing. Set in England in 1176, Adelia, who is traveling with her companions Mansur and Gyltha and her daughter Allie in the cavalcade of Emma of Wolvercote, who is out to claim her infant son's inheritance. She is called to come to Glastonbury Abbey by King Henry II, to investigate two skeletons (a man's and a woman's) that have been discovered in the grounds of the recently burned abbey. It is thought by the locals that the skeletons are those of the fabled Arthur and Guinevere, but Henry wants proof, in the hopes that it will help him put down a Welsh rebellion. As the king's "mistress of the art of death", Adelia is to examine the bones and provide the proof Henry needs. Investigating the abbey fire is Rowley, the Bishop of St. Albans, the father of Adelia's daughter, who Adelia still has strong feelings for, even though she denies them at every turn. Complicating matters even further are: monks with various secrets; an innkeeper and his strange wife; hidden caves and tunnels; a secret colony of lepers; the seemingly complete disappearance of Emma and her entire party after arriving at Wolvercote Manor, and the fact that there is a dangerous and violent evil lurking in the woods around Glastonbury... Franklin does an excellent job of creating suspense amid everyday life, the historical details are accurate, her characters are involving, the story is always compelling, and she manages to infuse enough humor to relieve the tension at the right times. Her portrayal of Henry II is intriguing and genuine, and the novel on the whole is entertaining and well done. Highly recommended, whether you have read the first two in the series or not.

2011-05-09T21:36:00.000-04:00

I went to see "Water for Elephants" the other day, and I have to say, it was really an enjoyable film. Based on the wonderfully readable book by Sara Gruen, it is elegantly filmed, with great period costumes and sets, a faithful-to-the-book script, and certainly well cast: Hal Holbrook playing Jacob as an old man, Robert Pattinson as the young Jacob, Reese Witherspoon as Marlena, and Christoph Waltz as August. The main story involves Jacob, a 1931 Cornell veterinary student, who at the end of his senior year undergoes a family tragedy that changes his entire outlook on life. He boards a circus train and manages to talk his way into a job. Honest and hardworking, he hates seeing the ringmaster's cruel treatment of the animals and does his best to avert such incidents; plus when he meets Marlena, the circus performer who is married to August, the ringmaster, he is totally smitten. Eventually, the two recognize what exists between them, but work to keep it under wraps. The alternately charming and dangerously violent August, trying desperately to keep his circus together and profitable, continues to throw workers off the train ("redlighting") without paying them, and buys Rosie, a performing elephant from a failed circus, determined she will be his moneymaker. Jacob is assigned to be Rosie's trainer and caregiver, and Marlena is to create a new act around Rosie.Training is difficult, and the act is begun too soon; Rosie bolts in the circus tent, which leads to a brutal and humiliating punishment by August, with consolation given by Jacob and Marlena. Later, it is Jacob who discovers that the elephant recognizes commands if they are given in Polish and gets the elephant on track to be a star. Rosie, smart and feisty, shows off her various stunts and tricks and becomes a huge hit and moneymaker for August. As the circus flourishes, the relationship between Marlena and Jacob grows cautiously...until the day August discovers their relationship and wreaks terrible and tragic vengeance on all concerned, leading to a thrilling climax wherein it falls to the grateful Rosie to save everyone involved... This is a gorgeous movie, beautiful, dramatic, and at times heart-wrenching in its emotion, a portrait of another time filled with hardships and hopes and dreams, with well crafted characters and a good solid story and performances. Even if you have not read the book, this engrossing film is definitely worth watching.

2011-05-07T10:19:00.000-04:00

THE SULTAN'S HAREM by Colin Falconer, 2006.
This had been on my list quite a while, and I'm glad I got around to it at last.

Spanning the years from 1522 to 1561, the age of Suleyman the Magnificent, and set mainly in the ancient city of Constantinople (Stamboul), Falconer quickly introduces most of his large cast during the early chapters. The Sultan is all-powerful in this world of the Ottomans, called Lord of the Lords of this World, Possessor of Men's Necks, Allah's Deputy, etc. He holds the power of life and death over all his subjects, no questions asked. At the heart of the sultan's palace, though, is the Harem, a vast domain of women of various types and nationalities, beautiful and pampered and sheltered from the world and who always await the sultan's pleasure. Guarded by eunuchs, the Harem may not be entered by any man but the sultan himself. The women, some of whom are his wives, some concubines, some slaves, all live together under this roof and all compete for the sultan's notice. Falconer's story concerns three of Suleyman's women: Gulbehar, the mother of his heir; Julia Gonzaga, the daughter of an Italian lord who is kidnapped while on a journey from Venice to Cyprus to meet her husband; and Hurrem, a young Tartar from the Russian steppes who is sold into slavery and winds up in the Harem. These three characters form the main threads of the story as their lives intertwine along with Suleyman's and several other characters: Ibrahim, Suleyman's most trusted friend and adviser and right hand man who is cruelly betrayed in one of Hurrem's plots; Abbas, the eunuch who loves Julia and is destroyed by that love but first is able to redeem himself by saving her; Ludovici, who loves Julia but can never truly possess her heart, and Mustapha, Suleyman's eldest and dearest son and heir, who is forced to pay the ultimate penalty through no fault of his own. The main force of the novel is Hurrem, the manipulative and vicious Russian beauty who endlessly plots and schemes her way into Suleyman's bed at all costs, and once there, continuously hatches intrigues to remove anyone standing in the way of what she most desires: REVENGE. Falconer's narrative races along filled with fascinating historical details, lush descriptions, horrendous violence and cruelty, family strife, love and hate, forbidden desire and obsession, huge battle scenes, mistaken identity, missed opportunities, and eventual triumph. I found this a hugely entertaining and involving novel, and I enjoyed learning about the Ottomans and this time in their history. I thought Hurrem an especially interesting heroine of sorts: even though over the course of the novel the reader may come to despise her (as I did) for her wicked nastiness, Falconer's excellent characterization of her enables you to understand her motivations and almost admire her perseverance, utter determination, and courage in such a situation as she found herself. On the other hand, Suleyman, whom Falconer shows as a very dominating, powerful potentate, changes over time into a somewhat pitiable figure, one that the reader has sympathy for, but at the same time realizes that so much of his misery was caused by his own stubborn refusal to recognize people for what they truly are. A very worthwhile read, I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in stories of palace intrigue or an interest in historicals set during Ottoman Empire.

2011-05-06T09:58:00.000-04:00

Finished reading on 4/23/11:
THE CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE DE MEDICI by C. W. Gortner, 2010.
Intriguingly written, well researched, and beautifully realized portrait of one of history's most hated queens. Gortner's Catherine springs to life from these pages, beginning with a violent and uncertain childhood in Florence, Italy, as one of the last of the powerful Medici family. Married off to the French king Francois I's son Henri as a teenager, she is kept relatively in the background for years, looking on and observing the machinations and intrigues of the powerful figures of the dazzling and decadent French court. She is humiliated by her husband's mistress, Diane de Poitiers, but is able to hold her own through her own willpower and her gift as a seer. As queen, she sponsors the famous and enigmatic Nostradamus, whose prophecies give her much trouble and lead to horrendous conclusions in lives of all whom she holds dear. When she is widowed at forty, with young children to care for and a kingdom wracked by religious strife, class struggles and poverty, she manages to take control and drive for peace, even though the course she steers is dangerous and unpopular. Ultimately, Catherine must make terrible decisions and sacrifices in order to save the throne of France for posterity. Gortner does a wonderful job of portraying Catherine as a passionate, conflicted woman, torn between her love for her family and what is best for France. He provides a somewhat different view on Catherine's interest in prophecy and poisons, as well as her relationship with Gaspard Coligny, the Huguenot leader. His descriptions of the fabulous Court of France, with all its luminous notables, gorgeous palaces, plots, intrigues and scandals is brilliantly done, with lots of spice and bite, enjoyable writing all around. He shows more of Catherine's education at court, her relationships with other members of the royal family, her relationship with Francois' mistress Anne de Heilly, and her tangled and often dysfunctional relations with her children. I found this novel enlightening and fascinating because Gortner chose to portray Catherine as a more mult-layered character, rather than simply as the wicked and desperate horror she has generally been shown as, and provides examples trhoughout as to how that reputation began and endured. Gortner's novel and Jeanne Kalogridis' novel The Devil's Queen, have similarities, but Gortner's is probably the more sympathetic of the two and the better written. A very worthwhile piece of historical fiction about an infamous woman.

2011-05-03T20:27:00.000-04:00

Finished reading on 4/15/11:

MARGARET MITCHELL'S "GONE WITH THE WIND": A BESTSELLER'S ODYSSEY FROM ATLANTA TO HOLLYWOOD by Ellen F. Brown and John Wiley, Jr., 2011.

A wonderfully written, informative, and entertaining look at the phenomenon of the most popular American novel in history. This is a "biography" of the book itself, from its conception to the present time. The authors used various and numerous sources, including archives and interviews, in their research, and have done an excellent job of distilling so much available information into a very readable narrative, providing not only necessary factual information, but intriguing stories as well. In the course of 18 chapters, they write of how Mitchell started writing the novel, its discovery by Lois Cole of Macmillan, the problems of getting the manuscript ready for publication, the unwanted celebrity that followed for the author, the issues with overseas copyrights, legal hassles, the crazy business and pressures of filming the movie, and how the book turned into an entity in itself, becoming a trust handled by attorneys. They tackle well known rumors and mysteries and issues concerning the book and actually provide answers to some of the most frequently asked questions and clearing up some misconceptions.The volume is illustrated with great photographs, some from Wiley's own enormous personal collection of GWTW material. An enjoyable read and a handy reference, this is well worth adding to your shelf next to your copy of "Gone with the Wind."

2011-04-13T09:32:00.000-04:00

THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE by Alan Bradley, 2009.
Eleven year old Flavia de Luce stumbles over a dying man in the cucumber patch. As he expires, he whispers one word, "vale." An investigation shows the man was murdered, and Flavia, who listens and keyholes and picks locks with ease, had earlier heard the fellow in an angry confrontation with her father. Who is this person? What does "vale" mean? And how did he come to die at Buckshaw, the de Luce mansion in rural England? Was he poisoned by the piece of pie he ate? And what's the significance of the dead snipe bird found on their doorstep with a stamp stuck on his beak? Flavia, definitely a precocious girl who loves chemistry and has her own working lab, is intrigued by the mystery, and decides to do her own investigation instead of leaving it to the local police. With her bicycle, Agnes, Flavia is able to travel around the countryside and nearby villages, searching out clues with most people being none the wiser. Her snooping leads her into a past that involves a private boys school, valuable postage stamps, and a shocking suicide that is connected to her beloved father. When her father is arrested for this latest death, Flavia ramps up her investigation, little knowing that she has attracted the attention of someone else who has a great stake in how the case turns out and could be extremely dangerous... Excellent descriptions of rural 1950s England, enough wacky village characters to fill several books, dollops of humor (especially between Flavia and her older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne), clever dialogue, and an intriguing mystery make for a good relaxing read. If you don't mind a rather plucky and know-it-all sort of kid solving crimes, this is fine entertainment. The first in a series.

Robert Redford Double Feature

2011-03-28T10:34:00.002-04:00

Don't know how we ended up watching two Robert Redford movies on two consecutive nights, but it happened. I had brought home a DVD library copy of "The Great Gatsby"(1974), screenplay written by Francis Ford Coppola, which I remember when it was released, but at the time had no interest in it. Something brought it to my attention recently, and I decided maybe I should watch it. As it turned out, the whole family sat and watched. I had never read the book, either, but knew the story vaguely. I think everyone else in the family had at least read the book.

The story is narrated by young and somewhat naive Nick Carraway, cousin to the wealthy and married Daisy Buchanan, who resides in the wealthy enclave at East Egg, NY. Nick has recently moved across the bay to West Egg, and lives next door to the somewhat mysterious and self made millionaire Jay Gatsby, who throws huge parties and never attends them. Nick discovers that Jay has a secret: he was previously acquainted with Daisy, and he wants Nick to help him renew that acquaintance. Events take their course, with Daisy and Jay having an affair. Eventually, Daisy's husband the somewhat overbearing Tom (who all the while is having an affair with local woman Myrtle Wilson) discovers their relationship and sets in motion a chain of events that lead to tragedy, with only Nick knowing the truth of what actually happened. I was mostly very impressed with the movie version. It is a beautifully filmed, opulent and richly detailed film, done with great care and direction. The sets, costumes, automobiles, etc. were appropriate and really conveyed a feel for the 1920's during that era of the Jazz Age, with the charleston, bouncy music, and enormous wealth so prominent. The casualness of the wealthy set, the constant houseparties, the luxuriousness of their lifestyle, all came through on film. It was well-cast: Robert Redford as Gatsby is the true golden boy millionaire; Mia Farrow as the social butterfly and clueless Daisy irritated me; Sam Waterston as Nick was an excellent narrator and gave a much needed outsider's viewpoint; the lovely Lois Chiles was chic and classy; and Karen Black as Myrtle had an excellent chance to show some teeth. It was fun to see Kathryn Leigh Scott (of "Dark Shadows" fame) playing Myrtle's sister. Bruce Dern as the antagonistic Tom Buchanan was well cast, he played his character with some passion, his relationship with Myrtle was especially well played. My only criticism is that perhaps the script could have been tightened up just a little, there were times when not much happened on screen and it was a bit slow and just overlong at 144 minutes. But on the whole, a good classic movie. Just an little side note: Dern and Karen Black would later be reunited for Alfred Hitchcock's "The Family Plot", Lois Chiles and Mia Farrow would act again together later in "Death on the Nile", and this was Redford's and Chiles' second movie together, as they had done "The Way We Were" the previous year.

"The Way We Were" (1973) was the second Redford film we viewed over the weekend, by way of TCM. It is a nice romantic film that has actually held up well over time. I remember seeing it many years ago (probably on a college date) and liking it well enough then. Its story is simple really: loud mouthed social activist Katie (Barbra Streisand) meets golden college boy Hubbell (Robert Redford) on a New York campus in the 1930's and they have a brief relationship and then go their separate ways. During wartime, they run into each other again, and fall into a real affair that eventually leads to marriage. Along the way, he becomes a noted author and scriptwriter ending up in Hollywood and she supports him while trying to work for causes she believes in, and their efforts eventually cause too many problems for them to overcome; they split; when they meet up years later in New York in the 60's, it's a very bittersweet reunion.

It's a nicely filmed movie, with great sets and provides a good impression of the times, with World War II and Hollywood and the whole Joe McCarthy Blacklist era, very well done. Streisand and Redford do quite well in their roles, and they have decent support from Bradford Dillman as his best college friend and fellow in the business, Patrick O'Neal as a Hollywood director, and Lois Chiles as Redford's college girlfriend who marries Dillman and later leaves him. A young Susan Blakely appears in this film, and James Woods has a good role as Katie's co-worker on campus causes. An excellent movie to view with your spouse or date, even though the ending is somewhat bittersweet and sad. It's still an enjoyable and well done picture with a pleasant cast and good story.

Both pictures were good breaks during the weekend of March Madness.

2011-03-21T13:14:00.000-04:00

DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL by Frances Hill, 2011.
Frances Hill, a noted historian on the Salem witch trials here turns her hand to fiction. Although most people know the basics of the story, Hill gets it started a bit differently, beginning with an Indian attack in the outback of Maine, where the living is a bit more easy, especially as concerns religion, drawing in less hardnosed Puritans, Quakers, and even Baptists. The Harvard-educated Reverend George Burroughs, a former resident of Salem Village and who left it under a cloud, rescues young Mary Cheever during the Indian attack on York, and they are later married and live happily in Wells with Burroughs' houseful of children.

Meanwhile, in Salem Village, young girls playing at fortune telling get into serious trouble and become pawns and actors in a deadly plan by Thomas Putnam, who has many scores to settle. As Hill heats up the narrative and reveals the story in its logical pattern, the community she describes becomes a place of terror. When the group of afflicted girls becomes larger and more people are cried out upon, no one is safe. Even George Burroughs is accused and arrested, and when he is transported from Maine to Salem jail, Mary is determined to find a way to save him. Along with Peter White, an old friend of George's, Mary travels to Salem to plead for her husband's life; they both quickly discover firsthand the horrors that exist in Salem and just how unprepared they are to fight the hysterical forces that threaten to overwhelm them.

Hill, whose nonfiction account (A Delusion of Satan) of this well known chapter in American history is excellently researched and written, does a fine job with providing the period details and necessary background of New England during 1692. I like her taking the stance that Thomas Putnam took control of the situation to promote his own agenda, supplying the girls with the names of those he held grudges against and encouraging them to accuse them. It added dimension to the story and made it more real. Once she keeps the story focussed on the Burroughs, an urgency takes hold that made me keep turning pages even though I knew how things would turn out. Her descriptions of neighbors and friends betraying each other in order to save themselves, of farms and buildings gone untended, of cold and harsh judges, of children left without parents or homes, of awful jail conditions, all ring true and can be favorably compared to what Kathleen Kent depicted in her novel The Heretic's Daughter, as well. Her portraits of George Burroughs, Mary, Peter White, Nathaniel Cary, Margaret Jacobs, and several others are sympathetic and appealing. Mary's whole mission to save her husband is quite heartrending, and I thought Hill was clever in having Mary ask the questions that modern audiences often ask when reading about these cases: How can they believe this? Why is it that the witch didn't have to touch them that time to make them stop when she did before? Can't anyone see that they are play-acting? and suchlike. Her depiction of the judges and especially of their willingness to believe in "spectral evidence" during the trials was downright chilling and made my skin crawl. I wasn't thrilled with several of her pieces of fictional license: for example, her description of Bridget Bishop goes totally against what is known about her; Deliverance, not Lydia, Hobbs was the name of the accused person who implicated Burroughs; Abigail Williams didn't hang herself, she was present throughout the entire period. These changes seem unnecessary or purposeless, and to those very familiar with the story rather jarring. It was a nice touch to include a bibliography, although it seems a little self-serving that four of the nine titles listed were written by the author. But all quibbles aside, on the whole I found this a very readable and engaging novel about this shocking and terrible time in New England's history. It made me want to visit Salem again!

2011-03-06T13:26:00.001-05:00

THE WOLVES OF ANDOVER by Kathleen Kent, 2010.
Kent's first book, The Heretic's Daughter, was a much better read for me than this one. Here she relates the backstory of Thomas Carrier (aka Morgan) and Martha Allen, both of whom were major characters in the previous novel. Set during 1673, Thomas is indentured to a farmer cousin of Martha's near Billerica, Massachusetts. Martha meets Thomas and comes to know and love him while she is attending her cousin Patience's difficult pregnancy. Unknown to Martha (and most of the others) for most of the book, is that Thomas is a regicide, that he in fact wielded the axe that decapitated King Charles I in 1649 under Cromwell's orders. Along with other participants in the execution, Thomas escaped to Puritan New England and has been living there under a different name and has been protected from those who seek to avenge the dead king. However, King Charles II, bent on rounding up those who murdered his father, has sent more assassins after the regicides, and once Martha learns Thomas' secret, she realizes that she and all those near Thomas are also in danger. Part mystery, part romance, and part thriller, Kent does an excellent job with historical details, showing the dirt and filth, the political turbulence and violence, everyday customs, hunting, threshing fields, fashions, foods, and hard life during the seventeenth century. As interested as I was to know more about Thomas and Martha and their story, I found this rather tough going--just not as compelling as their lives during the high drama of the Salem witch hysteria. Simply a personal preference, in reading this it felt like something was lacking in this effort. Not a bad read, just not as good as it should have been.

2011-02-28T14:47:00.001-05:00

THE TUDOR SECRET by C.W. Gortner, 2011.
It's the summer of 1553, and young King Edward VI lies seriously ill in London. Brendan Prescott, an orphan without a past raised by the Dudley family, is sent to serve Lord Robert Dudley at court, and is immediately plunged into a world of politics, danger, and deceit. Within no time at all, he is forced to work as a double agent for William Cecil, a master manipulator whose main concern, along with the dark visaged Walsingham, is for Elizabeth Tudor's welfare. Plenty of villainous nobles, a headstrong lady in waiting, a helpful stableboy, ruthless royals, and enough dark plots and secrets for several books, keep the story moving at breakneck speed. Brendan becomes enmeshed in the attempt to disinherit the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth and place Lady Jane Grey on the English throne, and during his involvement discovers the answers to some questions he has concerning his own troubled past. Gortner weaves his various threads of the plot together very well and provides enough background and details of Tudor England to add depth and interest. He's good with his characters, although at times his villains seem almost too villainous to be credible, but the whole thing is a fun, fast moving adventure with lots of twists and turns and suspense and violence and a bit of romance for good measure thrown into the mix. The end result for this reader: good writing, interesting characters, an appealing hero, and a strong story that kept me wanting to turn the next page. I also appreciated the author's afterword and bibliography. A very enjoyable outing overall; I liked the character of Brendan and hope that as this is the beginning of a series (Elizabeth I Spymaster Chronicles) that he will have many more adventures. If you enjoyed the Ursula Blanchard series by Fiona Buckley or Karen Harper's Elizabeth I mysteries, this novel should appeal.

2011-02-19T11:04:00.000-05:00

I STILL DREAM ABOUT YOU by Fannie Flagg, 2010.
Fannie Flagg is a novelist who really knows how to write good stories. While this one is not as good as some of her previous books, her sense of humor is still present, her characters shine in all their wonderful quirkiness, and the story (part mystery, part drama, part comedy) is involving and appealing. Set mainly in contemporary Birmingham, Alabama, with some flashbacks, Flagg's story concerns former Miss Alabama Margaret Fortenberry--Maggie, lovely and charming and the most successful agent of her realty company, feels she somehow has lost her way in life, and missed out on her dreams. Her dreams of having a wonderful husband and children, living in one of the elegant old houses on the mountain, and having a great life. And since her business partner Hazel died, business has gone from bad to worse and so has Maggie's life in general. To everyone else, Maggie's life seems almost perfect, but Maggie has regrets and secrets and decides to end it all, and she comes up with a great plan how to do it. But each time she tries to carry out her plan, circumstances occur to make her put it off, again and again. Flagg's sense of humor and her wiseness are present in this story and she moves things along at a good pace. Her cast is fun and odd, as is her usual--the overweight Brenda, who is Maggie's best friend and real estate partner, the ancient and funny purple-haired Ethel Clipp, who runs their office, the mysterious Edward Crocker, who owned the fabulous mansion that Maggie has always dreamed of living in, all add color and humor. This is a pure pleasure to read, even if it's not her best work. Fannie Flagg is still one of my favorite Southern authors writing today, and I'd recommend any of her books to someone who enjoys Southern humor and quirkiness.

2011-02-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

ANCESTOR by Scott Sigler, 2010.
A hugely entertaining science fiction adventure/horror/thriller, with plenty of humor, violence, gore, nasty villains, heroes, mad scientists, murder, mayhem, and horrifying creatures. A corporation run by brothers Dante and Magnus Paglione (Magnus, by the way, is psychotic with a penchant for torture and mutilation) is funding a venture to create an animal whose organs would be compatible with human organs and could be harvested for transplants, saving thousands of lives and making the brothers and their investors immensely rich. By reverse-engineering, their top-notch scientific team creates an animal they call the "ancestor", based on the genes of an ancient mammal that existed eons ago and was a common ancestor of all present day mammals. P.J. Colding, the story's hero and the team leader, and his team are endangered due to ethical and biohazard issues and there governments are out to find the lab and put a stop to their experiments.With success very close, the movable lab is transported by Sara Puriname and her crew by aircraft and placed on a lonely island in Lake Superior. Dr. Rhumkorff, the head geneticist, Tim Feely, and others place viable embryos of their creation into cows, and the embryos grow quickly, too quickly, gaining weight up to a hundred pounds in several days. Meanwhile, time is running out: blizzards hit, agents from the United States are closing in, and the evil Magnus Paglione has his own bizarre agenda concerning the experiments and its participants.Too late, when the cows begin birthing the babies (who actually eat and claw their way out of the cows' bellies), the group realizes they have unleashed powerful, evil, and hungry monsters that live to hunt, kill, and literally devour their victims completely, and from that point, the whole story becomes one of survival. Fast paced, page turning, nail-biting terror and suspense, this one practically kept me up all night. Yes, at times it read like a movie screenplay, but I didn't care. Anyone who has enjoyed the novels of Michael Crichton and/or Robin Cook would probably like this.

2011-02-11T16:39:00.000-05:00

THE FAR REACHES by Homer Hickam, 2007.
I picked this up, drawn by the cover, read the flap and was intrigued. I'd certainly heard of Hickam before, but had never read any of his books, and World War II is not a period I'm that fond of. I'm glad I picked it up. Turns out that this title is actually the third book in the "Josh Thurlow Series", but the fact that I hadn't read the previous books did not make any difference in my enjoyment of this story. Hickam opens this entry with the horrific battle at Tarawa in 1943, and introduces the reader to the heroic Captain Josh Thurlow of Killakeet, North Carolina, his buddy Ready O'Neal, and the young Irish nun Sister Mary Kathleen Ryan, and others, amid scenes of blood and gore, horrendous violence and death, bodies floating or piled high on the beaches, blood in the water, men jumping out of barges only to be killed instantly by unending hails of bullets and so on. Reading this definitely gives a sense of war being total hell. Josh, predicting the outcome of the battle, joins in, and becomes involved with the Sister's attempt to escape. Afterward, Josh's nemesis, Colonel Montague Burr, lets Sister and her native "fella boys" take the unconscious Josh, Ready, and several other marines to the Forridge Islands ( the Far Reaches). The Sister, who has painful and horrible secrets of her own, wants help to carry out her own nearly impossible plan for getting the Japanese out of the islands. Colorful, action packed, some romance thrown in, full of adventure and lively characters and dialogue, it was a grand read. Entertaining, educational, and at times thrilling. Great storytelling and a good change-of-pace read for me.

2011-01-24T15:00:00.000-05:00

CATHERINE OF ARAGON: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII by Giles Tremlett, 2010.
Tremlett, the Madrid correspondent for the Guardian, has written an excellent biography of Henry VIII's first wife. Utilizing rich, and in some instances, previously unavailable sources in the Spanish Archives, he presents his findings in a well written narrative that even readers familiar with her story will enjoy and learn from. He devotes a good amount of space to Catherine's childhood and education; as the daughter of the great Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon who were essentially trying to unite their kingdoms and drive out the Moors, Catherine and her siblings continually moved along with the court as it constantly traversed the kingdoms, never staying in one place for long. Even so, Catherine evidently had a peaceful and happy childhood for the most part. Betrothed to Prince Arthur of England at a very young age, she was raised as a future Queen of England. He describes her somewhat harrowing journey to England to marry and follows events in a logical fashion: the death of Arthur, her limbo between widowhood and her marriage to Henry, the miscarriages, the birth of Mary, the advent of Anne Boleyn and the King's Great Matter, the beginnings of the Reformation, etc. etc., all told in a straightforward, readable narrative. Sympathetic to Catherine, he also points out that she was not a flawless character, but had her faults, mostly in her stubbornness and inflexibility. Although Garrett Mattingly's biography, Catherine of Aragon, is still considered the definitive work on Catherine, this nicely done biography should stand next to it on the shelf.

2011-01-13T09:44:00.001-05:00

KATHERINE THE QUEEN: the Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII by Linda Porter, 2010.
Well researched and literately written, enjoyable bio of Henry's sixth and last wife. Porter has taken available sources and put Katherine's life into context of the times in a very readable narrative. Beginning with what is known of her childhood and moving through her first two marriages, the bulk of the book concerns her life with Henry VIII, and the last part concerns her brief time as Henry's widow and then wife to Thomas Seymour before her death in 1548. Porter really did a great job with explaining Katherine's Reformist leanings, her relationships with Gardiner and Wriothesley, with the Duchesses of Somerset and Suffolk, with Elizabeth and Mary, with Prince Edward, and most of all her "walking the tightrope" of a marriage with Henry VIII, who in old age was so irascible and changeable in his attitudes, a monstrous tyrant one minute, a caring husband and father the next. It is quite remarkable that Katherine survived Henry, as he was prone to boredom in his wives and was so dangerous concerning anyone who questioned his policies, particularly as concerned religion. Yet he trusted Katherine enough to make her his Regent while he went to war in France. The author also takes great pains to show how tirelessly she worked to bring Henry's children closer to their father and create a semblance of family life for the fractious Tudors, for which Henry seems to have been genuinely grateful. Porter's description of the power intrigues after the King's death is interestingly done: I never had any idea before that Katherine was such a politically astute woman who wanted to serve as Regent for Prince Edward during his minority but was in fact shut out--even by her friends at Court. The fact that she found some brief happiness before her death with Tom Seymour seems very little reward for this kind and generous woman.This long overdue bio as a whole suited my tastes very well: readable, educational, and informative. For all Tudor history fans.

Compelling drama

2011-01-04T12:06:00.001-05:00

We finished watching the 2010 miniseries "Pillars of the Earth" on DVD this past week, and quite enjoyed it. Based on Ken Follett's huge novel, the eight hour miniseries of course had to compress or leave out certain parts of the book for television, but according to my daughter who had recently read the book (which I have not), the scriptwriters changed things quite a bit, including several characters and adding new events and changing others. The overarching story, of course, is the building of a cathedral in a small English town after a purposely set fire destroys the old church, set against the backdrop of the England of Maud and Stephen during the 1100's with its endless conflict between them for the throne after the death of Henry I. Historically, King Henry I's son Prince William's drowning in the "White Ship" was an accident (not a planned murder), and Maud and Stephen ended their horrendous battles over the throne after Lincoln, when an uneasy peace was made between the two. Maud's son Henry II did not later have to invade England and fight to claim the throne (and kill his cousin Eustace in battle), as depicted in this series. However, setting those things aside, the storytelling was still interesting, the characters compelling to watch, and the whole depiction of the era was done quite well. It had the hand of Ridley Scott all over it (he's one of the producers)--had the same feel to it as Scott's most recently directed film "Robin Hood" -- that gritty, dirty, blood and guts, smelly, brutal sense of what it must have been to live during that chaotic period. It was such a despairing, confusing, and troublous time that it was said that "Christ and all his saints slept" during this era of English history. Rufus Sewell as Tom the Builder was very watchable, and Ian McShane as the wicked and utterly nasty Waleran was a stupendous villain. Matthew Macfadyen as Prior Philip, with his excellent voice, provided a believable character with great intentions in his service to the church and his almost heroic determination to get the cathedral built. The other actors were all well cast and gave fine performancesin their roles. The different plotlines of the story were interwoven pretty well, although at times it was hard to follow who was doublecrossing who and why, and it was satisfying to see all the characters, good and bad, get their just rewards at the end. An excellent drama, despite the historical inaccuracies and lack of depth with some of the characters; I'd recommend it to those who enjoy this type of miniseries.

2011-01-01T18:05:00.000-05:00

CAESARS' WIVES: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire by Annelise Freisenbruch, 2010.

Finished this last night, a competent, compelling, and totally absorbing history of the women who helped make (or break) the Roman Empire. Starting with the well known Livia and Octavia, the author relates the stories of such diverse characters as the various Julias, Fausta, the Agrippinas, Antonia, Galla Placidia, Pulcheria, Helena, Serena, and others, covering some 500 years of Roman history. Using available scholarship and excellent storytelling, the author presents their lives as more than just schemers, poisoners and murderesses, but as flesh and blood women who assisted in government and politics and who set examples for other women to follow. Excellent descriptions of Roman life and customs, religious issues, architecture, class distinctions, internal warfare, family feuds, and political rivalries help to set these women firmly in context of their times, and make for interesting reading, although sometimes all the family inter-connectedness could be overwhelming and confusing (thank goodness family charts are included!). The author clearly enjoys her subjects and her narrative shows it. One little thing--she seems to have a bit of pick against Robert Graves and his novel I, Claudius, for helping to create the prevailing perception of several of these women, most notably Livia and Agrippina the Younger. Graves used many of the same historical sources as this author, but as a novelist he chose to focus on his characters in his own way. As an historian, Freisenbruch used those sources and others to create more honest and well rounded portraits of these women. As a reader of historical fiction, I love I, Claudius, but I enjoyed this book because the author dug deeper and managed to make these powerful and flawed women real and provided the reader with documented proof of their places in history. Should appeal to any Roman history fan.

Yes, another Tudor book

2010-12-22T14:04:00.001-05:00

LADY JANE GREY: A TUDOR MYSTERY by Eric Ives, 2009.
Tudor history expert Ives takes on the story of the tragedy of Jane Grey and the 1553 crisis surrounding the English throne in this biography. Well written and researched, the author has thoroughly sifted through the available sources and evidence and presents a factual, interesting narrative of her life. He covers all the main events: birth, her place in the line of succession, Jane's brilliant education, her life with Thomas Seymour as his ward, including her brief time with her mentor Katherine Parr, her nearly fanatical Protestantism, her marriage to Guildford Dudley, the political intrigues which brought her to the throne, and the aftermath of Mary Tudor's coming to power. He avoids sentimentalizing Jane's life, and portrays her not traditionally as a victim of those around her (like Northumberland and her parents), but as a determined young woman who has a terrible situation thrust upon her and tries to make the best of it until she is removed from the throne, imprisoned, and within months executed. His portrayals of all the multiple well known characters involved in Jane's short life are well done and accurate: her parents, the power hungry Northumberland, the Catholic Mary Tudor, Edward VI, who struggled on his deathbed to rewrite history, the powerful but flawed Duke of Somerset, etc. At times, I admit I found the narrative dragged a bit, maybe a little too much detail, but overall, Ives has done an outstanding job of scholarship in presenting a compelling look at the tragedy that was Lady Jane's life. Definitely recommended for any who are interested in the Tudor period, and especially in Lady Jane Grey.

2010-12-13T13:33:00.000-05:00

THE SERVANTS' QUARTERS by Lynn Freed, 2009.
A slight story, set in South Africa after World War II. Interesting and strange little story that concerns a young Jewish girl living with her mother, sister and comatose father down the hill from the Harding mansion. Cressida and her family are invited to live in the mansion's servants' quarters when they have to leave their home, and George Harding, a former RAF pilot who was injured and disfigured during the war, takes an interest in the intelligent and precocious girl. Eventually, she is hired by Harding to serve as a companion to his elderly mother and for his nephew and he appoints himself her mentor; however, his interest in her changes over the ensuing years. And as Cressida matures, her interest in Mr. Harding develops as well. Issues of class, status, and race add a sense of time and place to the story, and the author uses elements of Jane Eyre and Beauty and the Beast to good effect throughout. Well written and a pleasant read.

2010-12-07T13:48:00.002-05:00

MURDER ON THE CLIFFS by Joanna Challis, 2009.
A pleasant little mystery set on the coast of Cornwall in 1921, a young woman is found dead on the beach by none other than the visiting Daphne du Maurier. She also discovers a lovely young girl near the body as well, young Lianne Hartley, whose handsome brother, David, was to marry the victim. The Hartleys are local gentry, and occupy an Elizabethan mansion high on the cliffs known as Padthaway (can anyone say Manderley?). Daphne, before she knows it, is deeply involved with the mystery of Victoria Bastion's death (murder, it turns out) and with the Hartley family with all their bizarre personalities and odd servants. Secrets and clues abound, and everyone is not what they seem in this tidy little mystery. While it is an interesting device to have Daphne du Maurier as a sort of detective, Challis' descriptions of the Cornwall area are nicely done, and Daphne's musings about ideas for writing novels are clever, I cannot say this was any more than adequately satisfying. It was a fine cozy mystery, no more, no less, and I'd recommend it as that. Will I read more in the series? Not sure about that.

2010-12-05T13:23:00.001-05:00

I watched "The Ghost Writer" the other night on DVD and found it quite entertaining. Based on a book by Robert Harris (which I haven't read) and directed by Roman Polanski, it boasts a top knotch cast: Pierce Brosnan, Evan McGregor, Olivia Williams, and Kim Cattrall. The story, a bit convoluted and sometimes murky, concerns a former British prime minister, Adam Lang (Brosnan), who is writing his memoirs using a ghost writer. The writer is found dead under mysterious circumstances, and McGregor's character, a ghost writer, is chosen to work with Lang to finish the memoir. Unfortunately, McGregor is thrust into an environment of dark secrets and those who wish to keep those secrets under wraps, and as he becomes more involved in the lives of Lang and his wife, Ruth, and uncovers information concerning Lang's past and about the previous ghost writer who died, his own life is endangered. A human rights scandal involving Lang suddenly becomes public: that Lang was connected with the kidnapping and torturing of four terrorists while Prime Minister; the pressure becomes more urgent to finish the memoir and keep up appearances. And that's just the beginning...Polanski does a good job with keeping the viewer guessing and building suspense in layers, as there are twists and turns and the characters' actions at times are totally bizarre. McGregor's character is interesting enough to keep watching as he puzzles things out, Olivia Williams is superb as the acidic and intelligent wife with her own dark secret, and Kim Cattrall doing a sort of British accent is decently watchable. As for the ending of the film, it hits you right between the eyes with no warning at all. A very Hitchcockian sort of film overall, and it indeed kept me glued to my seat. If you like Hitchcock, political thrillers, or suspense films, this is definitely worth the time.

Another book on the Tudors?

2010-11-30T14:36:00.001-05:00

THE TUDORS: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty by G.J. Meyer, 2010.
An excellently written, fresh look at the five monarchs of England known as the Tudors. In a single volume, the author provides an enlightening, myth-debunking, enthralling narrative that covers all the Tudors from the founder of the dynasty, Henry VII, to the last of them, the glorious Elizabeth I. Great description but not so overloaded with detail that the reader gets bogged down, Meyer makes good use of his sources and recent scholarship on this era of English history. All the sinners and saints, statesmen, lovers, victims, the wives of Henry VIII, the Lady Jane Grey episode, Mary I's fatal Spanish marriage, the boy king Edward who wanted a second Protestant Reformation in England--it's all here and done up in very readable and entertaining style. One complaint I read recently was that the author presents too many bad (negative) aspects of these monarchs; I disagree, his goal is to de-romanticize them and make them more human. There were also complaints of events/issues/important figures being left out, but honestly, it's a survey type book, and some things have to be left out. The subtitle is misleading in that sense. I found the book well worth reading, and I would recommend it even for Tudor addicts who think they know all there is to know about them, and even though the length (600+ pages) could be off-putting, I would recommend it to anyone who wants a good general introduction to the Tudors, their lives, and that period of English history.

2010-11-10T15:53:00.000-05:00

A KINGDOM STRANGE: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke by James Horn, 2010.

Excellently researched and smoothly written, this reads almost like a novel. Why did dozens of English men, women, and children leave England and voyage to a remote area of the New World? Why was Sir Walter Raleigh so interested in establishing a colony there? And why did it fail? What happened there that caused the disappearance of so many people, never to be explained? Horn does a great job of piecing together the story of the "Lost Colony" from contemporary records and writings, examining and re-examining, and he puts forth his own theory of why the settlement was made and what happened to those Roanoke Island settlers in 1587. Full of great details of seafaring and pirating, Spanish attacks, life at sea and in the new land of Virginia, Indian relations, and intrigues involving Raleigh and others within Queen Elizabeth's court, Horn packs it all in, but does so in a way not to overwhelm the reader. A nicely done, very readable account of one the truly great mysteries in American history.

2010-11-03T09:52:00.001-04:00

ISAAC'S STORM by Erik Larson, 1999.
After reading this nonfiction work, I realized why I had put off reading it for so long: I'm just not that interested in the history of weather forecasting. The National Weather Service was still relatively new in 1900 and they weren't taken very seriously, which created all kinds of issues with the government. But there was too much of it for my taste, especially the politcal infighting, plus I just didn't find Isaac Cline a very sympathetic character overall. There are those readers who would get into that sort of detail. For myself, I felt the pace didn't pick up until the narrative became more about the storm itself. The hurricane hit Galveston, Texas, on Sept. 8, 1900--Larson provides wonderfully vivid descriptions of what the hurricane did, the almost total devastation of the city, the number of deaths, the interwoven vignettes of various people and what happened to them, and then the whole aftermath of the storm. Some enthralling reading here: Clara Barton arrived with the Red Cross, people came looking for loved ones gone missing, gawkers came in on trains to see the spectacle of ruin, workers going through enormously high mounds of wreckage, the wholesale burials and burnings of over 6,000 bodies, unusual discoveries, etc. Was it worth my time and effort? Yes, I'm not sorry I read it, I found it enjoyable as a whole, but I was much more interested in the storm itself and the effects of it as opposed to the political maneuverings and intrigues and feuds within the bureau before the monster storm struck Galveston.

Vampires and Cannibals and Siblings, oh my!

2010-10-26T09:32:00.002-04:00

DEXTER IS DELICIOUS by Jeff Lindsay, 2010.
I stayed up till almost midnight finishing this fifth instalment in the Dexter series. This one finds Dexter learning to be a new father to Lily Anne, plus dealing with the return of his psychopathic killer brother Brian and helping his sister Sergeant Deborah Morganwith a horrific case involving murdered victims being eaten and finding a missing teenage girl who could be next on the menu. Loaded with Dexter's dark humor, with enough sex and violence to keep the story moving at a fast pace, this is enjoyable and thrilling. Dexter is such an interesting character in this novel, with his attempts to change himself for Lily Anne, to give up his listening to the his Dark Passenger, and to lead a more human life with Rita and their family. Events conspire against him all through the book, and it doesn't help matters at all that near the end of the book his frustrated sister makes a request that startles even Dexter. The very premise of this series has intrigued me from the beginning, and Lindsay has kept my interest up with each succeeding adventure. I find them generally suspenseful, humorous, exciting, and totally entertaining. With plenty of unresolved issues at the end of this story, I'm looking forward to the next chapter in Dexter's life.

2010-10-07T15:56:00.000-04:00

THE HORSE IN VIRGINIA by Julie A. Campbell, 2010.

Excellently put together coffee table style book about the history of the horse in Virginia. The first horses came on ship to Jamestown in 1609 and ended up being eaten along with dogs, rats, and practically anything else that could be found, during the "Starving Time," that horrendous winter of 1609-10. After the colony was more established, more horses arrived and flourished. Campbell divides her book into time periods, with plenty of wonderful illustrations. Lots of good material here on Civil War horses, and more modern horses like Secretariat, as well as horse racing history in the Commonwealth. It's a good browsing book, not as in-depth perhaps as some would like. I found it pleasant to dip into, enjoyed my favorite parts of it, and skimmed the others. If you are interested in a brief history with beautifully done photos and historical illustrations, then this will serve you well. Campbell gives a good bibliography of sources, too, for further reading.

2010-09-20T16:05:00.001-04:00

HONOLULU by Alan Brennert, 2009.
With a well written, smoothly flowing narrative, Brennert's second novel depicts the lives of four Korean "picture brides" who journey to Hawaii in 1914 to marry men they have never met. Regret (so named by her parents because daughters in Korea were considered unimportant enough for formal names) is the main character of the story. A somewhat feisty and independent girl, she is determined to obtain an education (not usual for girls in Korea) and make a different and better life for herself. A sympathetic relative helps her learn to read in secret. Then, seeing a chance to help her family financially and escape from her strict father, Regret and her childhood friend Sunny decide to make the journey to the island paradise of Hawaii to marry wealthy and handsome men who will give them good lives. All they have are photographs of the men they will marry. On the steamship they meet more girls--Beauty, Wise Pearl, and Jade Moon--all of whom become part of Regret's (now called Jin) circle. When they reach Honolulu, Sunny changes her mind and takes the return ship back to Korea; the other girls are quickly married off to their suitors--none of whom are what they expected. Disappointment, bitterness, backbreaking work, illness, horrific abuse, childbirth, disease, and violence becomes part of their lives, but they are resilient, smart, determined, plucky, and fiercely loyal, and these young girls create a support system which eventually enables them each to find happiness. Brennert follows these women through their triumphs and tragedies, ending the main story in 1937, but includes a 1957 afterword to further tie up loose ends. He is excellent with his historical details about Hawaii, Korea, the various customs and foods and clothes, politics, living conditions in the city and on the plantations, etc., all portrayed realistically and shockingly at times. He weaves through his narrative the stories of the real people who became the characters Charlie Chan and Sadie Thompson, and involves his fictional characters in the sensational scandal concerning rape and lynching known as the Massie case. He includes the racial issues of the time concerning Koreans, Japanese and Hawaiians, the problems of the government, prostitution, workers' strikes, etc., in convincing and interesting ways. Jin is a sympathetic and believable heroine, and if some of the storylines' resolutions seem a bit too pat, it is still an enjoyable piece of fiction. I would say that it isn't as compelling or as emotionally involving as Moloka'i, his previous book, but a good tale nonetheless.

2010-09-14T10:18:00.000-04:00

THE THREE MISS MARGARETS by Louise Shaffer, 2003.
If you enjoy the likes of Fannie Flagg, this may appeal to you. Set in a small town in southern Georgia, the main part of the story involves a dark secret buried for years. Laurel Selene McCready, a white trash reporter for the local paper, starts digging around after meeting an out of town writer working on a book concerning a former resident, Vashti Johnson. Miss Peggy, Dr. Maggie, and Miss Li'l Bit, who have known each other for years, are solid citizens of Charles Valley, Georgia, and thirty years before, they helped do a terrible thing--they hid the truth about a murder in order to protect someone close to them. In so doing, however, other lives were affected in various ways. When Laurel starts poking around and asking questions, old memories are stirred up and loyalties tested. These women must decide whether it's the right time to reveal the truth about what happened. Enjoyable, suspenseful, with plenty of quirky characters, strong regional flavor, and humor. It's partly a mystery, but it's mostly about friendship, loyalty, righting wrongs, and forgiveness.

2010-09-06T09:50:00.000-04:00

FRAGMENT by Warren Fahy, 2009.
I just finished this last night. A fast moving adventure suspense thriller similar to the novels of Michael Crichton. Paper thin characters, but lots of action and violence. Plot concerns an unexplored island in the South Pacific where the ecological system has developed completely and evolved undisturbed for millions of years. The island is remote and only has one way in--and of course, humans eventually discover it. First up is the cast and crew of a TV reality show called "SeaLife", with horrendously bloody results. Next in are the U.S. government and navy, with boatloads of scientists and state of the art equipment. What they find are nightmarish creatures and "plants" that exist in an "everything is food" environment, where all have evolved into animals with many and very startling characteristics and parts--multiple limbs and eyes and brains, abilities to mate in the womb and give birth continuously, are always in motion, and everything eats everything--including each other. When it is realized that these creatures have no natural enemies and no introduced predators can control them and the risk of their escape is too great, it is decided that the island must be destroyed. Meanwhile, it is discovered that salt water repels the attacks of the animals, earthquakes begin, fissures open, and the island is thrown into more chaos. Then, a benign, intelligent life form is found, and it becomes a race against time by a small group of people to save this creature at all costs before the island habitat is totally destroyed. Read this for the excitement and creativeness, I enjoyed the whole environment in chaos thing with weird animals and plants, good page turner with plenty of suspense, but a bit of a letdown toward the end. A really fast read, though.

2010-09-06T09:25:00.002-04:00

THE LITTLE STRANGER by Sarah Waters, 2009.
I stayed up past midnight the other night reading this, as I just had to know how it ended. Set in post-World War II English countryside, the story involves a crumbling estate and its owners, the Ayers family. The narrator of the story is Dr. Faraday, a middle aged local GP who has been fascinated with Hundreds Hall since he was a young boy and visited there. The current family consists of the lovely and delicate Angela, her spinster daughter Caroline, and her war scarred son Roderick, and they are struggling with changes in society, have sold off most of their land, have only one full time servant to wait on them, and are strapped for cash. Dr. Faraday becomes involved with the family when he is called to Hundreds to treat their servant, Betty, who is having some trouble adjusting to life at Hundreds. After a disastrous dinner party in which a young guest is seriously injured by the family dog, Faraday finds himself drawn to Hundreds and becomes a frequent visitor. Over time, he comes to realize, as the Ayers do as well, that something isn't quite right in the old Georgian mansion, that the strange creaks and tappings and the series of "accidents" are being caused by something that is dark and menacing. As their lives intertwine, each of them experiences genuine fear and horror over the sinister events at Hundreds Hall. A wonderfully compelling gothic story, full of quiet, unnerving incidents, interesting characters, and a great eerie atmosphere. Waters is a good storyteller and manages to pull the reader in fairly easily and keep those pages turning. If you have enjoyed novels like The Turn of the Screw or Rebecca or The Haunting of Hill House, that are full of creepiness and give you goosebumps, this has a lot of the same elements. I found it quite enthralling, and I am still thinking about it...

2010-08-28T11:12:00.000-04:00

A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES, by Silas House, 2002.

Recommended by a friend and colleague, I found this novel to be a very moving and somewhat haunting story set in the Appalachian region of Kentucky during World War I. It involves a young man, Saul Sullivan, who is looking for work near Redbud Camp, and falls on sight for Vine, a young Cherokee girl who lives there. Even though his mother, the tiny but strong-willed Esme, is against the idea of mixed marriage, the two are wed and come to live on God's Creek, Saul's homeplace. There, Esme and Aaron, Saul's younger brother, take to Vine very quickly (and she to them) and they form a close family unit. However, Vine has a bad feeling about Aaron, as she realizes over time that his admiration of her turns to an obsession. When Aaron leaves home for an extended period and then returns with a bride of his own, when Saul is forced to do war work in another county for nearly a year, and Vine's parents are forced to move to North Carolina, relationships change and conditions deteriorate within the family until disastrous violence erupts and Vine is forced to live with a terrible secret. Only months after Saul comes home for good and Esme has died is she able to finally unburden herself by forgiving others as well as herself.
The author has a wonderful writing style--you can hear the birdcalls and smell the mountain air when reading this book. It's poignant and evocative, filled with rich historical details of life in rural Kentucky during the early years of the last century, especially how women lived and worked, gave birth, loved, and died. His characters are real: the hardworking and stable Saul, who loves Vine and his family; the matriarchal and kind Esme; dreamy, bitter, and self absorbed Aaron; the tough talking and funny midwife Serena; Aaron's wife, Aidia, who so much resembles Vine and suffers for it; and Vine herself, patient, loving, faithful, haunted, determined to be true to herself, one who loves nature and her people, yet has to be separated from her people and see her old home destroyed. The novel deals with so many things: the idea of Cherokee culture being slowly destroyed from within by the older people refusing to talk about it as well as from outside forces, lumbering in the mountains and the making of turpentine for the war effort, the isolation of the hollers, religion in the characters' lives, issues of race. The author's use of accurate dialect and his descriptive passages of things natural add so much to the feel of the story, too. One of my favorite lines is "Maybe the trees were God." Overall, an emotional, thoughtful and beautifully written novel. Highly recommend it.

2010-08-24T11:29:00.000-04:00

DOUBLE BIND by Chris Bohjalian, 2007.
Excellently written novel that intertwines the homeless, bipolar disorder, and a mystery involving Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan (from The Great Gatsby). Set mainly in Vermont, the story moves back and forth from the 1920s to present day, and involves Laurel Estabrook, a social worker at a homeless shelter with a horrifyingly violent incident in her past, and an elderly, mentally ill homeless man, Bobbie Crocker, who has a box of photos that he won't let anyone see. After Bobbie's sudden death, the truth about him comes out: before he was homeless, he was a successful photographer who worked with subjects like Eartha Kitt and Robert Frost. Laurel, in looking through the photos, becomes fascinated with Bobbie's life and is convinced that there is a dark secret behind the photos. As she tries to fit the pieces of Bobbie's life together, she becomes aware that it is connecting with her own troubled past, and that someone desperately wants to keep that connection hidden. Interesting characters, an imaginative tie-in to a classic novel, beautiful Vermont scenery, vivid language, suspense enough to keep the story moving at a good clip, and a twist at the end that I didn't see coming. This is a really good page-turner.

2010-08-12T18:49:00.000-04:00

Viewed "Doubt" during the past weekend, and I found it so engrossing and unexpectedly intense that I watched it again last night. Set at a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964, the story concerns the vague suspicions and dislike of the school's principal, Sister Aloysius, towards the church's pastor, Father Flynn. She urges the other sisters to be on the lookout for anything that doesn't seem quite right. Sister James, a young and idealistic teacher, reports what she has observed concerning the 12 year old Donald Miller, and sets in motion the chain of events that follow for the rest of the picture. Meryl Streep is excellent as Sister Aloysius, determined, inflexible, and oh so right in her own mind about the doubts she has concerning Father Flynn; Philip Seymour Hoffman provides a wonderful performance as the pastor under attack; and Amy Adams is superb as the somewhat innocent and trusting Sister James.Viola Davis, even though her time on the screen is brief, makes her pivotal character of Mrs. Miller very real. A movie about right and wrong and trust and doubt, very thought provoking and well acted throughout. It just blew me away. One of the best pictures I've seen in quite a long time.

2010-08-02T18:02:00.002-04:00

Watched "Sherlock Holmes" over this past weekend with my wife and family. Actually my wife and I viewed it twice, as we wanted to catch stuff that we missed the first time around. Wicked fun, cool effects, convoluted and intense storyline, and interesting characters--Sherlock and Dr. Watson, as portrayed here by Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, are not the literary creations that most of us are familiar with. However, Downey and Law are an intriguing pair, with much witty banter and bickering throughout the movie, as they wend their way through a literally explosive case involving human sacrifice, magic, poison, multiple murders, a secret society, politics and a strange plot to take over the world. With boatloads of action, tremendously skillful fighting, and plenty of humorous repartee amongst the cast, the movie moves mostly at breakneck speed, and you don't really care if some things make sense or not, or if there are holes in the story. Rachel McAdams as the naughty undercover girl Irene Adler (who's being manipulated by the unseen Moriarty) and Mark Strong as the villainously evil Lord Blackwood are excellent in their roles, and it's fun to watch them interplay with Holmes and Watson. This film is a wild ride through Victorian London, with all its grimy back alleys and glittering restaurants and old cemeteries and magnificent halls of government, and replete with heroes and villains and damsels in distress, so hang on and enjoy this wonderfully entertaining picture.

2010-07-23T09:50:00.001-04:00

Finished last night: THE KING'S MISTRESS by Emma Campion, 2010.

I was very interested in the subject of this novel, Alice Perrers, as she has gone down in English history as one of the most villainous of women, and I was curious as to how the author would treat her story. Alice Perrers was the mistress of English king Edward III towards the end of his life, and she gained a reputation for being a greedy, manipulative harlot who tore the rings off the fingers of the dead king before he was even cold and then fled for her life. Campion manages to provide a fairly credible story for Alice, especially her life up to the time she becomes a member of Queen Philippa's retinue and is noticed by Edward III. Although the idea that Philippa encouraged and approved of Alice's relationship with the king a little hard to take, I found Alice's argument "When had I a choice to be other than I was?" to be an interesting viewpoint, and it was useful as a recurring point throughout the novel. Risen from the ranks of the merchant class, Alice grew in power and prestige, but at the same time made enemies who cruelly brought her down later. Campion portrays Alice as a strong character, determined to rule her own life, which included acquiring property and wealth and providing for her children, but she also shows how Alice was repeatedly manipulated at court by powerful people like John of Gaunt, Edward the Black Prince, Joan of Kent, and even Edward III himself, to forward their own agendas. Even when she tried to do what was right it usually turned out to be wrong for herself. Campion gives lots of period details concerning court life during the 14th century, political machinations, trade, customs, daily life among the merchant class, financial transactions, and fashions. At times the detail almost overwhelms. The secrets concerning Alice's first husband's family and the dowager Queen Isabella I found very intriguing and was glad for the bit of suspense; I also thought the relationship that Alice had with Geoffrey Chaucer a nice touch, as well as Alice being acquainted with Katherine deRoet, the young girl who would later become Katherine Swynford, the mistress and then wife of John of Gaunt. Campion writes well and has definitely done her research. Fans of Anya Seton's Katherine would probably enjoy this novel as well.

Poldark Lives!

2010-07-22T09:29:00.001-04:00

Recently re-watched the PBS series "Poldark" on DVD. First released in 1975, it came out on VHS a number of years ago, and now on DVD. Based on the first four novels of a 13 book series by Winston Graham and set in Cornwall, the main plotlines concern the characters of Capt. Ross Poldark, his cousin Francis Poldark, the ignorant waif Demelza, and the beautiful but shallow Elizabeth Chynoweth. Beginning in 1783, with Ross returning home from his service in the American Revolution to Cornwall (after being thought dead) to find his father dead, his home Nampara in a neglected state, his copper mines about to close, and his fiancee Elizabeth about to marry his cousin Francis, the story moves forward at a fairly good clip, involving more characters and storylines. There are 16 episodes in the first series; a second series was filmed as well--based on the next three books. And yes, while there are soap opera elements to the stories, the episodes remain close to the original novels, and the focus remains mostly on Ross and Demelza, two wonderfully drawn creations: Ross is a brooding, unruly sort of character, a heroic type who cares deeply for people and wants to do right, but gets himself into trouble because he can also be inflexible in his attitude. Demelza is a more free spirited type, smart and unafraid to share her thoughts, who doesn't understand why everyone can't learn to live together in peace. Other interesting characters include Verity Poldark and her longing for another life outside of Trenwith; George Warleggan, wealthy and socially inferior to the Poldarks and with a terrible jealous streak, continually makes trouble which creates a feud that runs through the entire TV and book series; Dr. Enys, young idealistic physician, whose lust for a miner's wife leads to tragedy; Francis and Elizabeth, whose marriage is an unhappy union for various reasons, all of which lead back to Ross; heiress Caroline Penvenen of Killewarren, who becames fascinated with Enys; Jud and Prudie, Ross' servants, who are poor but tough locals, and who provide some of the humor in these stories. I remember these stories with pleasure and enjoyed viewing them again. I read the novels years ago after viewing the TV series, and Graham's books are wonderfully done, with colorful, vivid characters and plenty of historical details, covering the gamut of human emotion and interaction: drama and heartache and inspiration and happiness and love and hate and loss, and even details on copper mining in Cornwall during the late 18th century. PBS did an excellent job of adapting and producing the series from the novels, and it has held up very well since 1975. If you've never viewed the TV series before (or even if you did years ago), the episodes are worth another look. And the books are well worth reading.You will be quickly drawn into the lives of these characters and enjoy the wonderful storytelling!

2010-07-15T16:37:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I finished "I AM MURDERED": GEORGE WYTHE, THOMAS JEFFERSON, AND THE KILLING THAT SHOCKED A NEW NATION by Bruce Chadwick, 2009.

I wish I could say that I really enjoyed this work, but I was rather disappointed. This nonfiction book is an account of the murder of George Wythe, 80 year old Virginia born statesman at his home in Richmond, Va., in 1806. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, for years the only law professor of the College of William and Mary, teacher and mentor of men like Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and Henry Clay. He was respected, admired, and beloved by all who knew him. On May 25, 1806, Judge Wythe, his black housekeeper Lydia Broadnax, and his protege Michael Brown were all poisoned with arsenic-laced coffee. Broadnax survived, Brown died after a week, and Wythe lingered for two weeks until he expired. The judge insisted several times on his deathbed that he had been poisoned, but his doctors insisted he had not, and their later bungled autopsy on his corpse didn't help matters. A sensational and tragic event,Wythe's grandnephew, George Wythe Sweeney, who was a ne'er do well gambler and profligate and lived with him in his house on Shockoe Hill, was accused of the murders, tried, and acquitted, much to the consternation of the community at large. As Sweeney and Brown were Wythe's co-heirs to his large estate and the cash-strapped Sweeney had already forged checks, the public generally believed he had committed the murders in order to get the entire estate. The only witnesses to Sweeney's actions (Broadnax for one, who realized that she saw him put the arsenic in the coffee pot) were not allowed to testify as they were blacks. So an outdated legal code, issues of slavery and race, as well as the issue of non-existent laws pertaining to state banks added to the problems. As far as the actual case goes, it was presented in an interesting way, but so much of the book seemed like padding or unnecessary information: I did not need to know the details of each of the doctors' and lawyers' lives, nor did I need to know the entire history of forensics or arsenic or so much on Richmond's history. It was simply too much and overwhelmed the actual events. As one reviewer noted, this would probably have made a very interesting article, but it made for a rather shallow book. It just wasn't as good a read as I hoped.

2010-07-10T16:32:00.001-04:00

Just finished reading THE KITCHEN HOUSE by Kathleen Grissom, 2010.

A truly absorbing and interesting story set in southside Virginia during the period 1791-1810. Lavinia, a 7 year old Irish girl, has survived the Atlantic crossing but her parents died and she has been separated from her surviving brother. The owner of Tall Oaks, Captain James Pyke, brings her to work there as an indentured servant. Lavinia is placed in the kitchen house under the care of Belle, who is the master's illegitimate daughter and light enough to pass for white. Lavinia bonds with the family in the kitchen house: Mama Mae, Papa George, Dory, Fanny, Beattie, and Ben, and she becomes intertwined with their lives; she is less concerned with the white family in the big house. The captain is often absent for months at a time, the mistress is usually in an opium fog, and their son Marshall is less than kind. Over time, however, she is taken in by the Pykes; Lavinia comes to care for Captain James, helps Miss Martha, and comes to an understanding with Marshall. Belle, for her part, is offered freedom by her father, but refuses it; the kitchen house is her home, the plantation's people are her family. Even later, when she is cruelly abused by the Pykes' overseer Rankin (a truly nasty character) and by Marshall, she's determined to stay. But when Lavinia, who ends up straddling both worlds and is forced to choose between them and unknowingly entangles Belle, events are set in motion that ultimately lead to tragedy for all the people at Tall Oaks. This is a story of race and boundaries; violence and cruelty and madness; goodness and love; loyalty and forgiveness; lust and betrayal. Grissom writes well, emotionally involving the reader with the characters, making you feel their pain and anguish and triumph, giving a storyline that moves along and creates suspense. Her use of two unusual narrators, Lavinia and Belle, and her main themes of history repeating itself and isolation are interesting and effectively presented. It also begs the question of just who is enslaved and who is free? Not your typical Southern plantation life novel.

2010-07-10T10:25:00.000-04:00

Watched "Blind Side" last night on DVD. I'm no big fan of Sandra Bullock, but she was very good in this movie as the mom who takes in a basically homeless black boy known as "Big Mike" and makes him a part of her family. Inspirational and thought-provoking, the story concerns wealthy and sharp-tongued Lee Ann Tuohy(Bullock's character) and her family adapting to this rather large, quiet young man who has kept a gentle and calm attitude about himself all through the hard knocks of his life. He's accepted along with another boy into a Christian school in the hopes of both educating him as well as getting him onto the football team. His knowledge is limited, but it's quickly proven that he isn't stupid, simply that he needs extra help to catch up. Kathy Bates plays his tutor, and she is good in the role. Ray McKinnon has a nice part as the football coach who has to take some heat from Bullock's character. The movie delves into the emotional conflicts and reactions of the various characters to this Sphinx-like boy. Conflicts are caused over his living with this wealthy white family who are huge Ole Miss fans. Lee Ann's friends are clueless, other students spread rumors, issues are raised about Mike's background, and a huge question is raised over his choosing Ole Miss as the school he wants to attend and play ball for over other good offers. An enjoyable movie, good story, excellent casting, and it raises good questions about issues of responsibility and accountability,what is truly important in our lives, and what motivates us to be the people we are. Bullock totally deserves the Oscar she won for this role.

2010-06-28T09:47:00.000-04:00

Watched "The Young Victoria" the other night, and really enjoyed it. Emily Blunt was well cast as the young monarch, so sheltered by her overprotective mother and her mother's ambitious comptroller, that she had only the barest knowledge of the outside world. Forced to go down stairs holding someone's hand from the time she was a child and to share her mother's rooms, she was still doing it at 18. Her domineering mother, the Duchess of Kent, kept her well away from what she considered the loose court of King William IV; she was a virtual captive at Kensington Palace.Young and inexperienced when she became Queen, she was determined to rule over those who had control over her life. She is helped by Lord Melbourne, her Prime Minister (Paul Bettany), but then becomes far too dependent on him, which creates friction in her government. After she meets Albert, she draws strength and courage from his love for her, and after they marry, she eventually realizes his worth as an equal partner in running the country. Blunt is good, portraying Victoria as a young, vibrant, enthusiastic and untried monarch--a much different picture than what most people have of Queen Victoria. She not only shows Victoria as an intelligent thinker with true concern for the working class and the poor, but also lets her show emotions and flaws. Miranda Richardson as the Duchess is excellent; she only wanted the best for her child, but at the same time she meant to keep her under her thumb. Mark Strong as Sir John Conroy is appropriately grasping and menacing. Rupert Friend does a credible job as Albert (he even resembles the real Albert), the minor German prince who Victoria marries and who helps her mature into the queen they knew she had the capacity to be. Lavish costumes and sets provide a feel for the time, and the script really moves the story along at a good pace. It's not a long film, and it feels shorter than it actually is. While I'm not totally convinced of its accuracy in all aspects (this is Hollywood after all), it is an entertaining enough movie that gives a good and positive portrayal of an English monarch that is generally thought of as old, dumpy and dressed in perpetual black (which she was like that, only much later). Engrossing, beautifully filmed, well directed and acted, it really provides a good picture of Victoria early in her reign.

2010-06-27T15:09:00.001-04:00

THE QUEEN'S PAWN by Christy English, 2010.

Well written first novel by this author. In 1169, Princess Alais of France is sent to England at age nine to be brought up in the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine until it is time for Alais' marriage to Richard, son of Eleanor and King Henry II. The innocent Alais is taken in by Eleanor, and they grow to love one another, and Alais falls for Richard as well. She knows that she is a pawn on the political chessboard, and that her marriage to Richard is to keep peace between England and France. The fact that Alais' father, King Louis VII, was once married to Queen Eleanor and divorced her, adds a spicy element. By 1172, Eleanor has taught Alais well, providing her with the skills necessary to play the power game as a woman in a man's world. Suddenly finding herself shockingly betrayed by both Richard and Eleanor, Alais is determined to chart her own future, involving the King and becoming a threat to the Queen herself. Their love for each other could be destroyed by dark secrets, lies, rivalry, political machinations, and revenge. I found this somewhat reminiscent of Goldman's The Lion in Winter in terms of language and politics and general personal loyalties and betrayals. The whole love/hate thing permeates the book.There is more of a romantic element present, but it didn't bother me. I thought the author captured her characters, most of whom were real people, very well, with all their various traits, emotions, and flaws. Set mainly in the castles of Windsor and Winchester, English provides ample historical details that add color to the story. Having the story told by Alais and Eleanor in alternating chapters was an interesting choice, as it enabled the reader to view some events from two different viewpoints, plus allowed the characters to develop more. It is always interesting to me to read a good story about an historical personage that not much has been written about. Recommended.

2010-06-22T10:34:00.000-04:00

CLEOPATRA'S DAUGHTER by Michelle Moran, 2009.

I practically gobbled this down, it read so quickly. I am a big fan of novels about ancient Rome (I, Claudius is still my favorite), plus having enjoyed Moran's other novels set in ancient Egypt, I expected this to be good too, and I wasn't disappointed. Beginning with Rome's takeover of Alexandria and Egypt, the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra and Octavian's taking their orphaned children, Alexander, Selene, and Ptolemy to Rome, she spins a fascinating story of their lives in ancient Rome. Little Ptolemy dies en route, but ten year old twins Alexander and Selene, once in Rome, are placed under the care of Octavian's sister, the caring Octavia. Once married to the twins' father, Antony, she is a kind and compassionate woman who loves children, and she has a houseful--her own, plus assorted others at various times from former spouses and relatives. As the twins are educated and they mature in Octavia's household, they learn the ways of Roman society, its customs and attitudes and ideas, especially what is valued and not valued. I thoroughly enjoyed Moran's portrayals of the young people, with their various feelings, foibles and problems: Tiberius, Marcellus, Julia, Antonia, Claudia, and Juba, all of whom played important parts in the lives of Alexander and Selene. And the more mature and familiar characters of Octavia, Livia, Agrippa, and Octavian/Augustus are every bit as colorful and real. Especially liked the scenes between Octavia and the acidic Livia. Moran brings all these characters and others to life very vividly, as well as providing wonderfully descriptive passages of Roman life, in all its glory and horror. The whole slavery issue and the practice of disposing of unwanted children made for interesting and awful reading. Told from mostly from Selene's point of view, there is plenty of action, period detail, and enough juicy dialogue to keep the narrative moving right along. Overall, a very well told story, smoothly written, and a great read.

2010-06-16T16:17:00.001-04:00

THE HITTITE by Ben Bova, 2010.

I just finished this yesterday. Being a Trojan War fan, I decided I'd give it a try. I was familiar with Ben Bova as a scifi author, but had never read any of his books, as I'm not really a fan of that genre. This novel is about the Trojan War, but told from the point of view of an outsider, a Hittite soldier, Lukka, who after the Hittite king is murdered and the empire at Hattusas is in chaos, discovers his wife and two young sons have been stolen away and taken to the west. He and others in his troop follow the trail, participate in various ambushes, and end up in the Achaian camp outside of the walls of Troy. The story is at times very familiar, with the usual Greek and Trojan cast: Odysseos, Agamemnon, Hector, Paris, and Helen. Bova makes the character of Lukka to be an unsung hero of the war, a capable and articulate soldier who makes logical and reasonable suggestions for battle strategy, builds a siege tower (which becomes the basis for the great horse), serves as a messenger for both sides, and is present for almost every important event. There is plenty of battle action, assorted violence, and gore, and enough period detail for setting the story, but it's a pretty shallow novel. Some of the language was jarringly modern.The author puts his own spin on some of the more well known episodes of the story, and offers up different reasons for some characters' actions. And the conclusion, which involves Helen and Lukka, totally turned me off. Mostly, I felt as though I was reading a movie script, and honestly, the cover reminds me of a movie poster. Was it a waste? Not completely. But there are certainly better novels out there about Troy than this. Whom The Gods Would Destroy by Richard Powell, Song of Troy by Colleen McCullough, and War at Troy by Lindsay Clarke are three I would recommend over this one.

2010-06-12T10:54:00.001-04:00

PRIVATE LIFE by Jane Smiley, 2010.

After having my interest in it piqued by several reviews, I picked this up as I walked past the new book shelf in my library one day to read. I remember enjoying A Thousand Acres very much as a rich and satisfying story based on King Lear. The basic story in this novel concerns a young woman, Margaret Mayfield, born and bred in post-Civil War Missouri, who is taught in all ways by her mother Lavinia to be a good wife, and is at 27 an old maid with no real prospects for a husband. Into her life comes Captain Andrew Jackson Jefferson Early, an astronomer who needs a wife. At the urging and manipulation of their mothers, the two marry, move to California, where he is posted to a San Francisco-area island to be in charge of the navy's observatory, and Margaret sets about making a life for them. His devotion to the study of science takes over his life, leaving little room for Margaret, who slowly realizes that everything is about Andrew and his professional and private needs and she must support him in every way by cooking and cleaning and typing his manuscripts, etc. Their lives change somewhat as they suffer the loss of a child, as they age, as they contend with new ideas and things like automobiles, and deal with important national issues and crises--the San Francisco earthquake, World War I, Pearl Harbor, the Japanese-American internments, and find their loyalties are tested. Margaret, so hopeful of having a fulfilling life as a wife and mother, eventually has to accept that her life is not what she would have wanted for herself. This story just somehow never quite involved me very much--lots of appropriate details and impressions of life during the period of post-Civil War to World War II, several interesting and likable characters, like Mrs. Lear and her sons, the Kimura family, and so on, but the two main characters just seemed rather one note: Andrew is hugely egotistical and often unpleasant; Margaret is at times almost disturbingly placid and accepting of everything. If Smiley's point was to show how a marriage can start out so promising and then over time descend into a sort of nothingness and emptiness, then she succeeded, as I felt very little for either Margaret or Andrew by the book's end. I have no complaint about Smiley's writing, as she's very readable; I guess it just wasn't a very enjoyable story for me and in the end not very satisfying.

2010-06-01T09:51:00.000-04:00

RETURN FROM TROY by Lindsay Clarke, 2005.

For some reason, I read War at Troy several years ago, but neglected to go ahead and read this sequel as well. I finally borrowed it and was totally enthralled. Picking up with the horrible sacking of Troy, Clarke does an excellent job of following the various survivors of the carnage and relating the various threads of their stories through the next ten years. It's all here: Menelaus and beautiful Helen, the woman who caused so much strife and agony; ambitious Agamemnon and Cassandra's fates at the hands of vengeful Clytaemnestra; Penelope's patient waiting for her husband's return amid the growing menace in her palace; Odysseus's son Telemachus's coming of age and his rage over his father's long absence; and Odysseus's many adventures in foreign parts as he journeys throughout the Mediterranean, trying to find the path that leads him home. Their stories are so familiar, and yet the author presents them in a fresh way that is enjoyable and entertaining. His apt descriptions of life in the ancient world, including daily routines, the war with the Dorian invaders, slavery, idol worship, terrific tempests, etc. all add color to the multiple stories. Well written and well told, if you enjoy stories of the Trojan War and what happened after, this is quite worthwhile reading.

2010-05-13T15:27:00.003-04:00

Finished late last night: FIGURES IN SILK by Vanora Bennett, 2009.
Fine, smoothly written narrative, with plenty of period details, set during the period after the Wars of the Roses. The story concerns the Lambert sisters, Isabel and Jane, each of whom becomes the mistress of a king. Jane, who marries and divorces Will Shore, becomes the mistress of King Edward IV. Isabel becomes unknowingly acquainted with Richard of Gloucester, just before her marriage to Thomas Claver. Later, they meet again under other circumstances, and she eventually becomes Richard's mistress. The majority of the story follows Isabel, who, after her husband's untimely demise, chooses to apprentice herself to her mother-in-law, the hard-nosed silkwoman Alice Claver. Isabel has ambitions to break the Lombards' hold on the silk making industry in England and to found her own silk making house. To that end, she establishes connections and forms a network which eventually leads her to ask King Edward for the funds and assistance to set her plans in motion.When Edward dies suddenly, leaving the English throne to his young son, and England is thrown into the turmoil of Richard III, Isabel's life changes dramatically and completely, as does Jane's. I enjoyed Bennett's previous book Portrait of an Unknown Woman very much, but found this novel to be rather slow going and almost tedious in spots. In my opinion, Jane was the more interesting character, and I would have liked more of her story. I did enjoy Bennett's portrayals, however brief, of both Elizabeth Woodville and young Elizabeth of York. A good read, just not as good as I had hoped it would be.

2010-05-04T12:31:00.000-04:00

LOVING FRANK by Nancy Horan, 2007.

A beautifully written novel about the scandalous love affair between the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney, which shocked and dismayed the Chicago-Oak Park area, as both were married when they began their affair. Covering the years 1907-1914, Horan easily draws the reader into the lives of her characters and gets him involved. After the initial shock and several years' separation, Mamah's husband Edwin divorced her and then remarried, and Mamah and Frank, whose wife Catherine refused to divorce him, lived in Europe. They live together off and on, each return to the States, live in Japan during a job Frank has there, and eventually settle at Frank's creative dream home--a fabulous, nature-inspired house, Taleisin, in Wisconsin. Horan does a wonderful job of dramatizing the many doubts and worries the couple encountered in themselves and each other: financial woes, emotional problems, issues with each set of children, Mamah's determination to use her knowledge and education to make her own mark, Frank's self-centeredness, Mamah's ruined relations with her beloved sister Lizzie and the anguish each felt about living their lives in the manner they chose. Horan's writing style is graceful, beautifully descriptive, and flows smoothly. Her portrayals of Mamah and Frank are realistic and thought-provoking and complex. Overall, it's a fascinating, engrossing read about two very passionate people who found each other and created a lurid scandal by wanting to be together, the tough choices they were forced to make in order to do so, and the terrible tragedy that befell them both. A tremendously worthwhile read. I highly recommend it.

Was a remake really necessary?

2010-04-26T09:17:00.001-04:00

I went to see the remake of "Clash of the Titans" the other weekend. After viewing it, I'm not sure why anyone felt it necessary to do a remake, except that it gave the film maker the chance to do some awesome special effects. Basically, the story is the same as the 1981 movie: young Perseus must go on a quest for the head of Medusa, which is needed to turn the Kraken into stone before he eats Andromeda and destroys mankind in the bargain. Don't get me wrong, the first movie did its part to mess up the whole Perseus myth; this film absolutely muddies it up even worse. Many changes have been made from the original film, most of which were unnecessary and disappointing. The addition of Io was totally pointless, and her storyline destroys the end of the movie. In the original movie, there was more interaction between Zeus and several of the other gods, including Poseidon, Hera, and Athena; here, Zeus and Hades are the only gods utilized very much, and in fact, the picture becomes nearly a showdown between the two, with Perseus in the middle. The little mechanical owl from the first film is used as a throwaway bit in this movie; Perseus doesn't want to use the magical sword given him by Zeus; the huge scorpions have multiplied and are used as transportation; the old philosopher character is gone; the three Gray Ladies(Stygian witches) are monsters instead of old women with only one eye between them; Perseus is the only character with a buzz cut--why?; the whole legend of Danae has been changed--now it is her husband rather than her father who puts her and her child into a chest and casts it into the sea and in this film Danae perishes; you never get to see the entire Kraken as in the first film; the love story between Perseus and Andromeda is gone, and so on. On the plus side, although I enjoyed Ray Harryhausen's special effects in the original, the effects in this movie are quite good. I really liked what they did with Medusa, especially keeping her face beautiful (except when putting the eyes on you) and having her laughing as she chased the characters; and the winged horses were great, especially Pegasus, although why he was referred to as "the" Pegasus and made black, I'll never understand--another unnecessary change. Overall, the only reason to see this movie would be for the effects, as the story is definitely lacking from both the original Greek myth and the original movie. If you saw the 1981 film, don't bother with this one unless you are really into special effects. If you must see it, wait for it to come out as a DVD rental.

2010-04-23T19:36:00.000-04:00

RETURN OF THE SHADE by Bevis Longstreth, 2009.

An interesting, if not very involving, novel set in ancient Persia after the time of King Xerxes. The story concerns Parysatis, daughter, wife, and mother of Persian monarchs. Evidently, she has been given a bad rep by Greek historians, and in this novel, she comes back from the dead to tell her version of the story. It's a story that includes rape, murder, palace intrigue, torture, unrequited love, and sexual abandon in the glittering Courts at Susa, Persepolis, and Babylon. The cast of characters includes monarchs, queens, concubines, generals, and eunuchs, all jockeying for enormous power and prestige, and all willing to do anything to get them. The author includes fine descriptions of Persian life and customs, but unfortunately, none of the characters are very sympathetic or likeable, nor do you much care about any of them. Many seem rather one note and cardboard-like. The only exception is Parysatis herself, who is somewhat more developed, but not totally three dimensional. I found this novel to be full of information and it really piqued my interest in the Achaemenid dynasty, but I was really disappointed in the rather lifeless writing style and lack of character development. It could have been an exciting and fully realized historical at the hands of someone else or with a lot more work by this writer.

2010-04-15T08:55:00.001-04:00

DELILAH by India Edghill, 2009.

Like her previous novels, Queenmaker and Wisdom's Daughter, Edghill takes a Biblical story and expands on it to create a fully absorbing and satisfying read. In this case, she uses the Old Testament story of Samson and Delilah, weaving an entirely plausible backstory for the characters as well as keeping the basic story in view. Beautiful and graceful Delilah is raised as a dancer-priestess to the goddess Atargatis in the Philistine city of Ascalon. She falls for Samson, the Hebrew judge and reluctant warrior-hero who is considered an enemy by the Philistines, as soon as she sees him, but the evil High Priestess has plans for them both. Plots and schemes separate them physically but not in their hearts, and when events finally bring them together, it's with the knowledge that love can last even in death. Excellent storytelling, accurate description, and I enjoyed the way the author actually includes connections to her earlier books. If you enjoy Biblical based fiction, this will satisfy.

2010-04-05T18:33:00.001-04:00

THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, 2008.

I had been meaning to read this, but had just put it off. Don't know why, just got buried under other books I wanted to read more. It's an excellently crafted story done in letters, between a British woman writer and a group of people on the Island of Guernsey, concerning their lives during the German Occupation of the island during World War II. As the story is set in 1946, the memories are fresh, and thus there's more of an impact. Author Juliet Ashton is contacted by a man, Dawsey Adams, who owns one of her discarded books, and the correspondence takes off from there: she, looking for another subject for a book, becomes intrigued by some of his references to the Literary Society and wants to know more. Dawsey recommends she correspond with others on the island. So she exchanges letters with others in the society and over time the story is fleshed out through these letters. Juliet is drawn into their varied lives comes to know them intimately--their likes, dislikes, what they read, how they feel, etc., and eventually she decides to visit Guernsey to meet them all in person. Her visit becomes a time of self discovery for Juliet, as she meets the folks she has come to know only through their letters. There is kind Amelia Maugery, fisherman Eben Ramsey and his grandson Eli, Isola Pribby (who makes potions), the pretender John Booker, Will Thisby, who concocts potato peel pie for the group, and young Kit McKenna, an orphan; all of whom have their own stories, plus pieces of the main story. Central to the novel is the story of Elizabeth McKenna, a friend to many on Guernsey, who is taken away by the Germans to Ravensbruck, and who hasn't returned yet. Part of Juliet's discoveries on the island concern Elizabeth and her whereabouts and what they learn about Elizabeth's fate changes all of these characters' lives forever. A very moving and fascinating book, well drawn characters good and bad, interesting story and setting, lots of genuine warmth and humor, and about finding connections. A very worthwhile read.

2010-03-31T09:57:00.001-04:00

ANGELOLOGY by Danielle Trussoni, 2010.

When I read several reviews of this, I was really interested: intriguing premise, some history, a quest, action, and interesting characters. And while I did enjoy the story, unfortunately, it felt as though the pace was off. The whole middle section, which was a flashback, seemed somewhat slow and heavy. The last third of the book was very enjoyable; however, the ending left me a bit dissatisfied. In a nutshell, the novel concerns the Nephilim (offspring of angels and humans, mentioned in Genesis) and angelologists (scholars who study and track angels), and the ancient (and continuing) conflicts between them. For the Nephilim are not very nice--they are beautiful, powerful, monstrous creatures whose total desire is to subvert humans to evil and encourage war and oppression. They have infiltrated high levels of society and are deadly, but their power is weakening due to a mysterious debilitating condition they aren't able to cure, and this has led them to search for Orpheus' lyre, an instrument that is supposed to possess unimaginable power, and the angelologists are in all-out battle mode to stop them. The main character, Sister Evangeline of the St. Rose Convent, a young woman with many questions about her past, is drawn into this situation by a researcher who is unknowingly working for one of the Nephilim. As the story unfolds and Evangeline discovers more about her past and realizes what her role in the current events really is, the pressure is on and the situation crucial. I found the writing and pacing be rather uneven in spots, very smooth and exciting in parts but slow in much of it. I liked the story on the whole, but perhaps it would have been better if it had been more tightly written and faster paced.

Feel good movie

2010-03-29T10:16:00.000-04:00

I watched "Akeela and the Bee" last evening. Even though it was released in 2006, and been on TV mulitiple times, I had not seen it before. I enjoyed it quite a bit. The story concerns an 11 year old middle schooler (Keke Palmer), whose father had been killed when she was 6, and whose mother (Angela Bassett) works constantly with no time for Akeela or the rest of her children. A teacher realizes Akeela has a talent for spelling, encourages her, and invites a professor friend (Laurence Fishburne) to see her in action in a local bee. Fishburne's character is impressed, agrees to coach her for the district bee, which if she wins, she would have a chance at the national bee in Washington, D.C. School problems, home issues, peer pressures, and emotional upheaval are all a part of the story--and the problems are not just Akeela's: her mother, her friend Georgia, her fellow competitors, and even the professor all have their own griefs and needs and hurts. But, as this is an inspirational, feel good movie, Akeela ties them all together in her quest for the national championship and everyone learns something about themselves and each other and life in general. Palmer is really effective as Akeela, she does an excellent job as a kid who knows she's different but tries to hide it in order to fit into school, and it's interesting to watch her mature in her outlook as she works with Fishburne's professor toward her goal; and Bassett does a very credible job as the tough talking mom trying to hold things together for her family but somehow missing the boat on this gift her child has. Agreeable entertainment with a positive message.

2010-03-17T15:14:00.003-04:00

THE SISTERS WHO WOULD BE QUEEN by Leanda de Lisle, 2008.

Historian de Lisle's account of the Grey sisters: Jane, Katherine, and Mary, Tudor descendants with a strong claim to the English throne. Probably everyone knows the story of the tragic Lady Jane Grey, the "Nine Days Queen", either from history or from the film "Lady Jane", but many may not be familiar with her sisters. Descended from Henry VII, they were great-nieces of Henry VIII through his sister Mary, who was married to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. As such, their very existence was disturbing and troublesome. Their cousin, fanatically Protestant Edward I, made Protestant Jane his heir (instead of his sisters Mary and Elizabeth) in hopes that she would continue his plans for reforming England. A coup placed her on the throne, and after her short reign and execution at the age of 16 at the hands of Queen Mary, her two sisters were kept close at court. Katherine, lovely and somewhat flighty, managed to contract a secret marriage with Edward Seymour (nephew of Henry VIII's third wife), and have two sons by him, which made her a very real threat to Elizabeth I, who was both unmarried and childless. Forced to separate from her husband and older child and kept under house arrest, Katherine pretty much starved herself to death by the age of 28. Mary, the last sister, made her own secret marriage, was discovered and paid a sad price as well. Their story is one of greed and power, manipulation, religious unrest, loss of personal freedom, bloodthirsty plots, very little happiness, and terrible destinies. De Lisle provides new interpretations on Jane's story, gives new information on her sisters, and interweaves their lives against the unsettled era of the Tudors, including the stories of other potential rivals for the throne like Mary Queen of Scots, the Countess of Lennox, and the Earl of Huntington, as well as another cousin of the Greys', Lady Margaret Clifford. While I found that I didn't always agree on her interpretations of things, it was still an interesting book on the Tudor era and it was good to read a more full account on the other two Grey sisters.

2010-03-06T11:51:00.004-05:00

THE QUEEN'S GOVERNESS by Karen Harper, 2010.

I have liked most any of Harper's books that I've read; especially enjoyed her Tudor mystery series. This particular novel is a standalone title, and I was intrigued that she chose the character of Elizabeth I's old governess, Kat Ashley, as the main voice for the story.

Born Katherine Champernowne, Kat grows up in a household in Devon run by her father's second wife. Mourning her dead mother, Kat doesn't get along with her stepmother. By happy circumstance, she's noticed by the visiting royal councilor Thomas Cromwell, who arranges for her to live with and further her education with distant relatives. In return, Cromwell eventually brings her to court and wishes for her to be his "eyes and ears" around Anne Boleyn. The grateful Kat, over time, becomes sympathetic to Queen Anne, is trusted by her, and later by the doomed queen's request is given charge over the young Elizabeth.

Harper creates an interesting story around Kat: how she meets and eventually marries John Ashley, a relative of the Boleyn family; her relations with Tom Seymour, Princess Mary, Cromwell, and Robert Dudley, among others; the terrifying plots, gruesome executions and stays in the Tower; the religious issues of the day; the many intrigues and power plays surrounding the Tudor court. Many of the episodes about Elizabeth and Mary are familiar, but seeing them from Kat Ashley's viewpoint gives a fresh perspective. A smooth narrative, excellent details that don't overwhelm, and a good pace make this a satisfying read about the Tudor era.

2010-02-28T18:57:00.004-05:00

Finished last night:

WOLF HALL by Hilary Mantel, 2009.

English author Mantel has written a huge, sprawling story concerning Thomas Cromwell, who rose to prominence under Henry VIII during the time of the king's "Great Matter." Henry wished to divorce his wife Katharine of Aragon after 20 years of marriage and then marry the captivating Anne Boleyn. Looming in the background, foreground, and everywhere, was Henry's desire and need for a male heir.

The author has done a terrific job with describing how Cromwell, son of a brutish blacksmith, manages to escape his dreadful childhood, spends years abroad, returns to England and becomes Cardinal Wolsey's go-to guy. After Wolsey's fall, Cromwell continues his rise to power, and finds that he is living a life beyond his wildest expectations. Cromwell, charming, knowledgeable, enigmatic, opportunistic, ambitious, and an enormously successful strategist, becomes crucial in Henry's and Anne's intertwined lives. She does well with making him a well rounded person, showing him as a kind and loving family man, as well as the courtly manipulator he was.

This is a hugely entertaining book, filled with larger than life characters and events, and Mantel's writing truly makes the era come to life. Political machinations, judicial murders, religious upheaval and persecution and executions, threats from rival claimants for the throne, wars, plague, etc. are all part of the story. I found her portrayals of Queen Katharine, Mary Tudor, Cardinal Wolsey, Elizabeth Barton, Hans Holbein and others very credible. The tragedy of Sir Thomas More was an interesting and moving section, and it was amazing what she was able to do to make so many characters stand out and be memorable: Mary Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Lady Rochford, and Bishop Gardiner, among so many others.

My only complaint about this novel is that it was very difficult and at times frustrating to keep track of who was saying what to whom. It took too much time to figure that out, and as a result, made for a slow read. Other than that, I found it a fresh take on an often written about episode in history. Kudos to Mantel for choosing to tell the story using Cromwell as the main voice and creating a different perspective on this Tudor period.

When the moon is full...

2010-02-27T19:21:00.005-05:00

I went to see "Wolfman" the other night with a friend of mine. Our wives don't particularly care for creepy/scary/gory/horror type movies, so occasionally we'll go out together and see one. We were curious about this, and neither of us was disappointed. Reviewers were not overly thrilled with it, but we enjoyed the special effects, the overall creepy atmosphere, the story was fine, and Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro as the tormented father and son involved in the mystery did quite well in their roles. Emily Blunt as the fiancee of Del Toro's brutally murdered brother is quite interesting and easy to look at. Hugo Weaving was good as the detective sent from London to investigate the series of murders at Blackmoor. And casting Geraldine Chaplin as the gypsy woman Maleva was a good choice--cool to see her in a film again. Del Toro plays an American who is called back home when his brother is killed and becomes involved in discovering the cause of all these local murders. Visions from childhood, his father's distant attitude, and his attraction to Gwen (Blunt) add to the suspense. While it was easy to guess the secret of the Talbot family of Talbot Hall, it still made for a thrilling picture. Lots of little surprises to make one jump or flinch and plenty of blood and gore--for me almost too much. This movie really was more like a remake of the original "Wolfman" and I definitely liked it more than "An American Werewolf in London". My movie pal and I both agreed it was worthwhile, and I would recommend it at least as a decent rental.

2010-02-15T14:57:00.009-05:00

Just finished this yesterday: SOUTH OF BROAD by Pat Conroy, 2009.

Conroy is not a writer whose books I necessarily seek out. In fact, the only book of his I had read before this one was Prince of Tides, and that was many years ago... I was drawn to this one mainly because it's set in Charleston, South Carolina, an historic city I've visited several times over the years and am very fond of.

Most of South of Broad's action takes place in Charleston, and Conroy does an excellent job in his descriptions of the city, his use of real place names, etc. I could feel myself walking down Meeting Street, stepping into St. Michael's Church, and strolling along the Battery. The story involves a group of teens who meet the summer before their senior year in 1969 and who become lifelong friends, and continues 20 years later, in 1989, when they are adults and following their various paths. The two time periods/stories move back and forth through the book. Leo King, isolated and lonely, struggling to heal himself, is the heart of this group, which includes the glamorous just-come-to-town Sheba Poe and her brother Trevor; the damaged orphans Niles and Starla Whitehead; Ike Jefferson, Leo's football training partner and son of the new black coach; Betty Roberts, a sassy black orphan; the old Charleston money kids Molly Huger and Chad Rutledge and his sister Fraser. These kids become a close-knit group, whose lives remain intertwined as their circle widens. They survive issues of integration, loyalty, love, parental authority, prejudice, depression, alcoholism, acceptance, and multiple tragedies, some becoming stronger and some ruining their lives. These kids are troubled as teens, and they become more messed up as adults. Conroy piles on plenty of old secrets and scandals, supplies chilling horror when the Poes' insane father shows up, and uses Hurricane Hugo to set some things right in their world. While at times Conroy's characters seem a little too old and wise (especially as teenagers), they are interesting and well defined, full of emotion and energy. His writing is just wonderful, with plenty of wit and humor, as well as solemness and elegance and grace. Full of enthusiasm, beauty, wildness, cruelty, social graces and customs, emotional turbulence and the power of love and redemption, this novel really is thought provoking and moving. It was a very worthwhile read for me.

2010-02-06T13:26:00.004-05:00

THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett, 2009.

Even though snow is falling outside as I finish this, it was easy to feel the heat and humidity of a Mississippi summer while reading this book. Stockett's debut novel concerns three women (one white, two black) living in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962. Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is 22, an Ole Miss graduate, who is living back at home and who yearns for something meaningful in her life. She wishes her maid (caregiver) Constantine were around to give her support and comfort, but she has disappeared and no one will tell her what happened...Skeeter also realizes that life in the South between the races is not as it should be and wants to help somehow. Aibilene is a black maid, wise and dignified and kind, who has raised 16 white children as her own, and loves her current charge Mae Mobley enough to teach her a better way to live even though it could cost her everything and continues to mourn her only child--killed on his job while white coworkers looked on. Sassy and smart Minny is a great cook but doesn't know when to shut up and keeps losing jobs, but is loyal and true to her friends. These three determined females come together to work on a secret project that could start a movement and change everything in their town. In the process they learn much about each other and what it means to be black and white and female in the South, about barriers, about lines that can't be crossed and how to gain the courage to try. At times heartbreaking and sometimes funny, the author portrays life during that time and place honestly and painfully, with all the moonlight and magnolias and scars of slavery and racial prejudice and hatred on both sides.

Stockett knows how to write well, her language and dialogue are spot on, her descriptive passages are well done, and her characters seem real. She is able to portray both black and white characters equally well. She knows the South of the Sixties and what it was like growing up with a black servant. It all comes together as a very appealing and readable story and in the hands of a good screenwriter, it would make an excellent movie. As someone who grew up in the South during this period with a black caregiver, I found it really resonated with me in some small ways, and I think it will be one of those books that will continue to linger in my memory years from now.

2010-01-23T09:03:00.003-05:00

THE SUGAR QUEEN by Sarah Addison Allen, 2008.

A nice, light piece by the author of Garden Spells, this story concerns three youngish women, living in a small North Carolina town, who are tied together by secrets and lies: Josey, who lives with her mother as basically an unpaid servant, keeps a hidden closet full of sugary junk food for herself and dreams of escape; Chloe, who owns and operates the best sandwich shop in town, is in the throes of a breakup and is hounded by books that appear whenever she needs them; and Della Lee, a tough talking waitress with a heart of gold who is fleeing an abusive relationship and hiding out in Josey's closet. Murder, abusive behavior, illicit affairs, forbidden love, and blooming romances all play a part in the plot, and these characters' lives intersect when secrets are slowly revealed and all comes to light in somewhat surprising ways. Full of small town quirkiness, recognizable and interesting characters, humor, and a little bit of magic, it's a pleasant and charming read.

2010-01-19T15:59:00.007-05:00

I enjoy watching the old 90's sitcom "Home Improvement" (thank goodness for cable), and I like Tim Allen's humor on that show, so I decided to check out his first book, DON'T STAND TOO CLOSE TO A NAKED MAN (1994). I don't read a lot of strictly humor books, so this was something different for me. I decided that while I really like his show, reading an entire book of his humor was just a bit much. Maybe that's the way I'd feel about reading any comic's book of humor. Anyway, Allen's humor is good on TV, where he's interacting with other characters and it's in small doses. It just didn't come off as funny on the printed page--at least, it didn't give me consistent chuckles while reading it.

I decided I would watch the theatrical version of "Brideshead Revisited" (2008), after putting it off a while. I had viewed the original PBS series (from 1981) a short while back, and enjoyed it quite a bit--made when Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews were so young and John Gielgud was still actively working. I had read that this movie version did not stand up so well next to the PBS version, but I like Emma Thompson and thought I'd give it a shot. Well, next to PBS's miniseries, the film came off as pretty shallow. Of course, a film cannot accomplish as much as a miniseries can, but this film didn't have much character development or motivation, seemed rather murky at times, somewhat disjointed, and not very involving. Didn't draw me into very well. Emma Thompson as the brittle and very Catholic Lady Marchmain and Matthew Goode as the ambitious Charles Ryder were about the best things in the film; Michael Gambon was not very good, or Ben Whishaw or Hayley Atwell. In terms of chemistry, the only ones who had much chemistry together were Goode and Whishaw and Goode and Thompson. Sometimes the dialogue was a bit dull, which made the whole movie go rather slowly. Andrew Davies has certainly done better scripts than this (a little too much concentration on the gay thing for me and the whole Catholic/atheist issue seemed very shallow). Beautiful location shooting (Castle Howard in England, which was used for the original, too), very gorgeous sets, but not much depth here. Not terrible, but not consistently good or very enthralling.

2010-01-16T20:02:00.005-05:00

THE PHYSICK BOOK OF DELIVERANCE DANE by Katherine Howe, 2009.

The second adult novel about the Salem witch trials I've read in a year's time, the other being THE HERETIC'S DAUGHTER. This one is also written by a descendant of someone tried for witchcraft at Salem in 1692.

There are two storylines in this novel: one concerns Deliverance Dane, a real person who lived in the Salem area during 1692, and was accused of witchcraft. Deliverance is a practitioner of herbal medicine, with deep knowledge of herbs and healing power. She possesses a book, however--called at various times a receipt book, recipe book, physick book--that contains rare information about remedies and such, but also something more--actual spells. She uses her magical powers for healing, but unfortunately a patient (a child) dies under her care and years later this incident comes back to haunt her when she is accused of witchery and murder and thrown into prison to await trial and certain execution. Her daughter Mercy is left with the responsibility of keeping the physick book safe and flees to Marblehead.

The second storyline is set in modern day Cambridge, and concerns Connie Goodwin, a graduate student in history at Harvard, who is commissioned by her absent mother to clean out and get her grandmother's old home in Marblehead ready to put on the market. While she's looking through some old books in the house, a small key drops out of an old Bible; the key contains a scrap of paper with the name "Deliverance Dane" on it. Connie becomes determined to find out who this woman was; during her search, she discovers the fact that Deliverance once owned a physick book. Recognizing its research value gives Connie great impetus to discover its whereabouts. If such a rare item could be located, it could definitely add prestige to Connie's career. But someone else is most anxious that Connie find the book as well, and is willing to use any means to lay hands on it.

Smooth narrative, likeable characters, easy transition between stories, good details about the trials, some humor and romance with a small bit of menace thrown in. Not as intense or detailed as THE HERETIC'S DAUGHTER, but enjoyable in its own way.

2010-01-10T15:37:00.006-05:00

ARK OF FIRE by C.M. Palov, 2009.
Finished this up last night; good read that kept me turning pages. Story concerns a young and beautiful photographer, Edie Miller, who witnesses a murder and the theft of an important artifact called the Stones of Fire. She is hunted down herself but saved by a tall and blond former British Secret Service agent/scholar/author named Caedmon Aisquith, who of course becomes involved with the girl as well as the crime. They discover that a fanatical organization has stolen the aforementioned artifact and are tracking down the companion piece--the famed Ark of the Covenant, with the express purpose of bringing about Armageddon. Clues fall into place, leading them across continents, the body count is high, and time is running out. Definitely feels like a Dan Brown/James Bond/Indiana Jones sort of adventure. Knowing that, it's a fun and fast read, a good book to take along to the airport, beach or on a vacation.