My Reading Frenzy

Caleb's Crossing - Geraldine Brooks

Overall I really liked this book.  I do think the title was a bit misleading though.  While Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk is a significant element of the book, the story really belongs to Bethia Mayfield.  I found her and her experiences as a woman on Martha's Vineyard and the mainland in the mid-1600s very interesting.   Not to go all English teacher on ya, but I always taught my students that a book that is truly "good"  (And yes I know that "good" is all a matter of subjectivity.) will comment on religion, politics, economics, and society.  This book covers them all.  Having read Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower, (which I recommend if you want a detailed history of the time and historical figures) which discusses the Pilgrims and King Philip's War, which is touched on in this book, I felt well prepared for the historical elements Brooks was covering.  Without a background in the time period, I would have like a bit more history mixed with my fiction.  But Brooks was attempting to tell the story of a man about whom very little is known.  Her fiction therefore is a really comprehensive look at the life of a teen girl and the harsh reality of her life and that of native peoples in the region. 

You may notice I keep tempering any criticism with praise because I really have very little to criticize about the novel.  I have read both March (which won a Pulitzer) and People of the Book by Brooks and will continue to read her work as long as she keeps writing it.  Brooks approaches historical fiction the way it should be done...she takes real historical events and people then gives them life with voices and personality.  It is one of the best ways to touch history without doing the research.  The bonus is she dreams up the people and conversations and day to day events to give shape to the greater historical significances that sometimes obscure the real people. 

 

The Mapping of Love and Death - Jacqueline Winspear

I have been reading the Maisie Dobbs mysteries since the beginning.  I have liked them all.  As much as I am still drawn in by the mystery after seven novels (there is an 8th out in hardback: A Lesson in Secrets, but I have not read it yet.),  I really enjoy the historical elements of Maisie's life.  I also appreciate that Maisie's life progresses.  Too many mystery series just stagnate around the life of the sleuth as he or she just solves case after case...Maisie on the other hand keeps growing and developing her skills.  The stories all take place in London between WWI and WWII.  The Germans have not quite risen again and the scars of the first war have not yet healed.  In this installment Maisie is asked by parents to discover what happened to their son, who they believed to have died in the war, which he did, but an autopsy report reveals it is likely he was not killed by the enemy.  This is a book in which we find out so much about the deceased and REALLY like him that I truly was sad to have to accept that he died.  Winspear's characters are always full and richly characterized.  After seven books readers really feel close to the recurring characters who Winspear has not stopped exploring.  We also are drawn to the characters who will only appear in one novel; she does not sacrifice characterization because they are temporary and only exist to serve the mystery. 

This is a mystery series I can continue reading because the stories still stump me and the historical elements are consistently revealing. 

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

While the premise of Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez was interesting, the execution was poor.  The story centers on Lizzie who is a slave and the mistress of her master as well as the mother of his only two children.  For three summers Drayle takes Lizzie to Tawawa House, a resort in Ohio.  The existence of such a resort where southern slave owners took their slave mistresses away each summer is historically accurate, though the women in the story are not based on real women.   I think I might have been more invested in the story if the women had been historically based.  My disappointment with the book can be related to two elements. 

1. There were four women at the resort each year, Lizzie, Mawu, Sweet, and Reenie, yet the novel only details the life of Lizzie.  The fictional device of alternating narrators by chapter is beginning to bore me, but an omniscient narrator, who could have brought the reader into the minds of all four women, would have been more effective.   The expereinces of the women were so different despite the commonality of being slave mistresses, that an exploration of each woman would have emphasized the individuality of their lives  beyond the label "slave mistress."

2.  I would have liked a more thorough exploration of the difficult position of the plantation wives.   While a look at the psyche of the men would be interesting, that is really an entirely different book.  As the title indicates, this is the story of women and should therefore have delved into the experiences of all the women affected by this societal hypocrisy. 

While reading the book and afterwards I read many reviews on-line.  Generally readers liked it more than I did.  I also found the other members of my book club appreciated it more than I did.  I just wanted a different book and wanted this one to fit what I wanted to read. 

What I Saw and How I Lied - Judy Blundell

What I Saw and How I Lied takes place just after World War II.  Evie's step-father has returned from the war and started his own applicance business.  When he begins receiving strange phone calls, the family leaves for a vacation in Florida.  There Evie meets Peter, an older man who knew Joe in the war.  He interests Evie because he is handsome,  mysterious, and a bit dangerous for a 15 year old.  Blundell has done a wonderful job of integrating the historical aspects of the story with Evie's desires to grow up.  Most of the minor characters in the story are adults who are doing their best to forget the war ever happened.  As the narrator, Evie remembers some of the hardships when she compares her present life in sunny Florida to the long years of the war when she and her mother lived with Joe's mother, waiting for him to return unharmed.  While he is unharmed physically, the book touches on the harms that war does to men mentally and emotionally.  While this is not a focus of the book, it is an important undercurrent in their lives.  Because Joe's conduct in the war has not been entirely honorable, and Peter knows it, there comes a time in the story when Evie much choose between Peter, the man she believes she loves, and her family.  Even an astute reader will wonder what she will do.  Because the story is told from Evie's point of view, it would be more appealing to teen girls, but the mystery aspects of the story may interest boys. 

Jane Austen and Lord Byron- Really?

Yes, really.  In this latest in Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mystery series, Jane works to solve a murder of which Byron has been accused, which is therefore appropriately titled Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron.  This is the 10th in the series and the book at which I may have to throw in the towel.  The author readily admits in the interview included after the story there is no evidence Jane Austen and Byron ever met, though they were certainly contemporaries.  This is not a problem for me.  A little historical speculation is the whole point of historical fiction.  What I did not like was the solution.  It just did not seem authentic, it seemed too neat, it was too hurried, there was little reason to believe he had done it, his motive was not developed enough so I did not feel particularly that justice had been served when he was caught.  There was no investment in his being the murderer.  I would have much more readily accepted one of the other possible perpetrators, even Byron.

What I do like about these mysteries is the peek at the time period.  The discussions of the Prince Regent (George IV), clothes, books, horse and carriages, Assembly Balls, and the references to Jane Austen's books are what may keep me reading, but another disappointing denouement will chase me away for good. 

The Vespertine - Love and the Supernatural

I have not yet decided if The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell is fantasy historical fiction or historical fantasy fiction.  Amelia has moved to Baltimore for the season in the spring of 1889 to find a husband, as there is no one suitable in Broken Tooth, Maine.  What she finds instead is the power to see the future.  Sometimes she sees a mundane future about a lost glove, but other times she sees a death or other tragedy.   She discovers this power by accident one evening at vespers (hence the title) as she looks into the setting sun. 

One element I really liked about the book is the way the fantasy elements naturally fit into the story.  (Clearly I have decided it is historical fiction with elements of fantasy.)  They do not feel contrived or forced.  Amelia simply does what a young woman does, which is flirt and dance and giggle and rebel, but there is much more to her and her powers.  The novel is a celebration of young womanhood and the discovery of the magic within.  Sounds a little hokey, but I cannot help but admire Mitchell's portrayal of Amelia as she discovers her feminine power and finds the male who is her complement. 

The writing is also beautifully descriptive, which I always like.  I can appreciate books that qualify as brain candy, but I like when novels, especially those for young people have a compelling story as well as being strongly written literature. 

The book also ends well, though I did have my worries for part of it...suitably vague but optimistic.  This is another novel I would like to see remain as a stand alone.  I care enough about Amelia and her soul mate to wonder what happens to them and content to remain wondering.  I think a sequel would lessen the power of the story. 

Flavia de Luce et al

The third mystery from Alan Bradley in the Flavia de Luce series, A Red Herring without Mustard gives the reader even more insight into the precocious, 11-year old, amateur sleuth, Flavia de Luce.  Flavia is a heroine for females of all ages; she is resourceful, clever, and independent, despite being routinely set upon by her two older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne, whose attacks would defeat a weaker spirit, especially as they routinely tell her their now deceased mother, of whom Flavia has no memories, did not love her.  (I hope there will be a book dealing with Harriet's life and death.)  Flavia is also admirable as a self-taught chemist.  Her experiments are clever and motivated by curiosity as learning should be.  Though these are not specifically YA mysteries, they certainly would appeal to a young audience, yet the mystery is not so simplistic as to bore an adult.  The historical elements of the stories, which take place in post-WWII, rural England draw the reader into Flavia's world.  The first two mysteries, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, are not required to jump in to the third book, but why wouldn't you want to spend time with Flavia. 

#3                              #2                            #1

 

Romeo and Juliet Wonderful

I just finished The Romeo and Juliet Code by Phoebe Stone....and I loved it!  It is a beautiful story that takes place in Maine from May -December 1941.  The war already going on in Europe is central to the novel about Felicity who has been sent from London to live with relatives for the duration.  Naturally the novel is melancholy as is Felicity, but because she is 11 there are also moments of joy, and love, and laughter.  If I had better words to describe how lovely this novel is, I would be a writer myself.      

 I hope there will NOT be a sequel or follow-up novel.  It ended with unanswered questions, but they are appropriately unanswered.  That is just the way it should be in some books.  [Sure, we wonder what kind of adults Huck, Jem and Scout, and Holden turned out to be.  And I would not mind knowing what happened to Tom, Daisy, and Nick (mostly Nick).]  BUT, not all stories should have a sequel or even a book with the same characters that is not really a sequel.  The not knowing is just like what people of the time were experiencing, not knowing if loved ones would return or if the Nazis really would be defeated, it is just the way it is sometimes.

I can now say definitively that the cover of this book is completely inappropriate.  When I read this article from School Library Journal it got me thinking about covers in general.  I get that covers can be a figurative representation of the content...but this one is downright awful.  I mean, it is an attractive cover, but readers who are drawn in by the cover are likely to be disappointed by the content, and readers who love World War II historical fiction will not go anywhere near this book when browsing.  It is really the book's only disappointment and sad since it is so wonderful.  

Dark Road to Darjeeling - Deanna Raybourn

I am continuing to enjoy the Lady Julia Grey series.  I was afraid they were becoming too predictable, but not so.  While I knew I was being misled by the assumptions of Lady Julia, I did not figure out the truth until she did....that makes for a satisfying mystery.  Sadly I do not have any connections to publishers so I have no idea when the next one will be out. 

I am looking forward to finishing The 13 Secrets sometime today.  So far I do not....well I will just save my comments until after I have finished it.  I often feel differently about a book after I am done than when I was reading it....it really is all about the ending.  (Incidentally, Michelle Harrison has the same number of letters in her first and last names and they line up really aesthetically on the cover.)

 

Judge a book by its cover?

Definitely an interesting commentary on the covers of YA historical fiction, though the comments afterward are almost more interesting because of the questions and concerns they pose about how much we judge books by their covers.

History in 2011: Conveying or Concealing the Past

Cupcakes and Crimes

In the past two days I have finished two YA novels, Close to Famous by Joan Bauer and The Agency: A Spy in th House by Y.S. Lee.  I always enjoy Bauer's novels as they are upbeat and charming.  This one was no different.  Foster McFee is an amateur baker who woos the townspeople of Culpepper, West Virginia with her muffins and cupcakes.  Foster struggles with reading and the loss of her father in the Iraq war, while her mother, a talented singer, tries to make a life for the two in a new town.  Sometimes Bauer's endings are too neat and tidy, but her characters struggle realistically...and it is nice to have a happy ending sometimes.

Lee's novel, is mystery and historical fiction similar to that of Anne Perry's William Monk and Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels.  There is just enough historical detail for a YA reader along with an interesting female sleuth.  I believe Lee intends a trilogy; the second book, The Body at the Tower is out now...I will have to track it down at my local library.  I am interested to see how Mary Quinn (aka Lang) develops and to what depth Lee will explore the time period and London conditions. 

At the top of my list for reading next are Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce and The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd.

It was...

a sweet book.  I Am the Wallpaper is about a 13 year old girl who feels like she is the equivalent of wallpaper...there, but not noticed.  After Floey's evil cousins move in for a three week stay, and her beautiful, popular sister leaves for her honeymoon Floey decides to get noticed.  And as the saying goes "Be careful what you wish for."  The book touches on friendship and self-confidence issues as well as love and growing up.  It is a nice story with an interesting use of Floey's diary and a website.  Next up is Lemonade Mouth, also by Mark Peter Hughes. 

While I love YA and children's literature I think I am going to need to do some adult reading next....perhaps Silent in the Moor so I can FINALLY find out what happens with Lady Julia and Brisbane.