Do you think the redundancy of the title was intentional?
(All together now: "eeeeeewwwwwwwww!")
This little beauty was brought to our attention by Callista, of SMS Book Reviews fame. Thanks, Callista!
Diversifying My Bookshelves
Do you think the redundancy of the title was intentional?
(All together now: "eeeeeewwwwwwwww!")
This little beauty was brought to our attention by Callista, of SMS Book Reviews fame. Thanks, Callista!
Guest Posts and Giveaways - these are a few of our favorite things
A Reader's Respite loves a good guest post. Why? Because it takes the heat off of us and, let's face it, A Reader's Respite is essentially very lazy. But you already knew that.
Recently, you heard us wax all poetic about historical fiction author Elizabeth Chadwick's novel, The Time of Singing (go here if you missed it). We just love a well-researched historical fiction novel and Elizabeth Chadwick ranks right up there with the best of them. She has kindly agreed to let all of us in on one of the more interesting aspects of her research.
Trust us, you'll want to read on. Take it away, Elizabeth!
Many thanks to Michele at A Reader’s Respite for inviting me to guest blog.
Recently, you heard us wax all poetic about historical fiction author Elizabeth Chadwick's novel, The Time of Singing (go here if you missed it). We just love a well-researched historical fiction novel and Elizabeth Chadwick ranks right up there with the best of them. She has kindly agreed to let all of us in on one of the more interesting aspects of her research.
Trust us, you'll want to read on. Take it away, Elizabeth!
* * * * *
Many thanks to Michele at A Reader’s Respite for inviting me to guest blog.
I regard myself as an ordinary grounded individual with an open mind and a healthy degree of scepticism. I enjoy ghost stories or tales of the unexplained, but I don’t dwell on them, so it may seem a bit odd when I say I use psychic research when writing my historical fiction.
I came to it by accident; it wasn’t something I deliberately sought out. My research has always been inter-disciplinary. As well as reading reference material, I visit locations and use living history and re-enactment to get a feel for medieval life and times. The psychic is just another part of that mix.
It all started 20 years ago when I met my now best friend Alison at a social group for mothers taking career breaks to look after their children. We got on very well and began meeting once a week to gossip over coffee while the children played. At the time I was a hopeful but unpublished writer and Alison was teaching part-time. I knew she was psychic in that she could sense energies in people and objects and see auras, but she never made a big thing of it; it was just part of who she was.
While I was being accepted for publication and pursuing my writing career, Alison began to develop her ability to work with energies and took qualifications in Reiki and Neuro Linguistic Programming. She found during the course of her work that she could take people to past lives and access the energies of those who had once lived. She calls it reading the Akashic Records – it’s like a kind of vast etheric library that’s out there for those with ability to access it.
She didn’t mention this particular skill to me until one afternoon when I was about three quarters of the way through writing the first draft of The Greatest Knight. We were chatting over our usual coffee and she asked me how the novel was going. I said fine, but I couldn’t find anything about the mistress of William Marshal’s older brother. Nothing was known about her beyond her name and who she eventually married. Alison looked thoughtful and said ‘Do you want me to see if I can find her?’ I was a bit taken aback, but said ‘Okay.’ What was there to lose? I gave Alison Alais’ name and a likely date and location from the scant details I knew. Alison took a few deep breaths, and just sitting there on the sofa, ‘travelled’ to find Alais. What came through was so amazing that I knew immediately I had to use this resource as part of my research.
We talked about it afterwards and decided to do a proper session the next week (with this first one we hadn’t taken notes because it was just so spontaneous and off the cuff) and see if Alison could connect with William Marshal. Here is a short piece of the transcript from that first ever sitting. I’d asked Alison to go to William in Poitou in 1168
Alison: He has incredible courage. He’s like a bouncy castle; very buoyant. He’s riding with a lot of highborn people. He’s awed by them but not overawed. He feels as if he’s in the right place. He has a good sense of his own worth. He’s very flexible and alert, responds not just in a chit-chat way but deeply and appropriately. He knows how to say the right thing at the right time and it comes easily to him. He’s alert and all his senses are awakened. He has dark hair, long cheeks, a strong nose. His clothes are intricate. His eyes look dark but inside they feel light. I am seeing the youth and the older man mingled. It is difficult for others to gauge what he’s thinking. He has very dark eyes; might be brown, might be blue.
There is a woman laughing and William is making her laugh by telling her jokes about the English being loutish and stupid. It’s probably Poitiers they are going to. The woman is Eleanor of Aquitaine.
I compared this assessment with one by Professor David Crouch, leading authority on William Marshal, and there are remarkable similarities in his description and Alison’s with reference to William’s personality. Crouch also comments on French chroniclers making fun of the English whom they saw as foolish, boastful drunkards.
When Alison accesses people who have gone before, her experience is a bit like watching a movie, except she gets the internal thoughts, the feelings, the emotions, the sight, sound, smell, touch, taste – the lot. Needless to say, going to scenes of childbirth, illness and battle can be fraught, but there are moments full of love and laughter too. The scene in The Greatest Knight where Isabelle is preparing for her wedding draws heavily on Alison’s reportage of the event.
Since those first moments in 2004, when we were very much feeling our way, we have accumulated around 150 hours of digital recordings and probably about 300,000 words in notes, and the sheer body of evidence is compelling in itself.
Once a fortnight I arrive at Alison’s armed with my digital recorder, a notebook and my questions. Alison never knows what the questions are going to be, or who she will be accessing. There may be moments when Alison’s subconscious impinges on the material (although she does her utmost to avoid this) and sometimes her tuning my go awry if she is tired or unwell, so a margin for error has to be factored in. Once written up, I send the notes to someone with a doctorate in medieval cultural studies for comment. I am told that what is coming through is genuine medieval mindset and attitude. I don’t pretend to know how it works – that’s not in my field, but I do know that the results are astounding – for me they are a hot wire to the past. I have come to know some people of the medieval world so well that they are almost family, and with that knowledge, comes respect. It’s a reminder that I am dealing with people who once lived and who are owed integrity and honesty.
* * * * *
Okay, so how cool is that? If a post like that doesn't make you want to delve into one of her novels, then we just don't know what will.
A Reader's Respite is pleased to see a man's head half chopped off rather than a woman for a change.
Elizabeth's novel The Greatest Knight tackles one of history's most fascinating men, William Marshal, knight extraordinaire of the Middle Ages. And lucky you, you get a chance to win one of TWO copies up for grabs!
Leave a comment here and on September 10th we'll draw two random winners who will receive a copy of The Greatest Knight. Now normally you know that A Reader's Respite loves to send books international, but the publisher is requesting U.S. and Canadian entrants only this time.
Library Sales....does it get any better than this?
Not sure about all of you, but nothing gets A Reader's Respite's blood pumping like a good library sale. We mark the sale days on our calendar with a big, red Sharpie, obscuring other less-important notes such as child vaccination appointments, mom's birthday, our anniversary, etc. We do have priorities, after all.
So how smart are the folks over at Book Sale Manager? They've created this uber-cool database that hooks up you (the reader) with them (the libraries who sell off their excess books).
Check it out.
Thank me later.
So how smart are the folks over at Book Sale Manager? They've created this uber-cool database that hooks up you (the reader) with them (the libraries who sell off their excess books).
Check it out.
Thank me later.
Sucky Book Award
As some of you know, A Reader's Respite has been silent for the past week. That's because we were busy traipsing across the country of Belgium. Now traipsing across an entire country sounds like a lot of work, but because Belgium is roughly the size of Maryland, it's not as daunting as it sounds.
Or at least it shouldn't be. But thanks to this absolutely useless book, it was much more difficult than it had to be.
Yes, we are officially giving a Sucky Book Award to this one. Useless maps, out of date information, and the most disorganized approach to visiting this beautiful country led this book to it's ultimate fate:
A bonfire in our backyard.
A Reader's Respite never thought we'd light a book on fire
Going to Belgium? Save yourself $20 and just email A Reader's Respite. We'll give you a better low-down and we won't even charge you for it.
Or at least it shouldn't be. But thanks to this absolutely useless book, it was much more difficult than it had to be.
Yes, we are officially giving a Sucky Book Award to this one. Useless maps, out of date information, and the most disorganized approach to visiting this beautiful country led this book to it's ultimate fate:
A bonfire in our backyard.
A Reader's Respite never thought we'd light a book on fireGoing to Belgium? Save yourself $20 and just email A Reader's Respite. We'll give you a better low-down and we won't even charge you for it.
WTF Wednesday
Completely non-book related. But we couldn't resist sharing. Who loves you, baby?
WTF Wednesdays are brought to you by The Book Resort!
Literature 101
Not up to speed on all the specialized genres of literature out there? Thank goodness you have A Reader's Respite here to fill you in on the 411. (And you, in return, can fill us in on slang that isn't straight out of the 1990's.)
Familiar with dystopian literature? We weren't either. Chiefly because we weren't sure what the hell dystopian actually meant.
As it turns out, dystopia means - and we take this directly from the supreme source of knowlege, Wikipedia - "the vision of a society in which conditions of life are miserable and characterized by poverty, oppression, war, violence, disease, pollution, nuclear fallout and/or the abridgement of human rights, resulting in widespread unhappiness, suffering, and other kinds of pain."
Kinda like downtown Newark, New Jersey.
Certain areas notwithstanding, the Garden State is lovely. Really. No nuclear fallout here.
So really, you are familiar with dystopian literature. Classic examples of the genre include H.G. Well's The Time Machine, Huxley's Brave New World, and Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
Basically any novel that required a prescription of Xanax after reading.
Oh look....Happy Pills
But good dystopian literature can provide an insight into current societal trends and open our eyes to the bigger picture.
The Unit is a newly-released novel written by Swedish author Ninni Holmgvist (with an excellent translation by Marlaine Delargy) that explores our societal obsession with productivity.
How far could we, as a society, take the concept of "usefulness"? If a human being isn't productive and contributing to society, are they useful? And what, when it comes right down to it, does it mean to contribute to society as a whole?
Enter Holmqvist's creepy world, where the "unproductive" members of society are made productive, whether they like it or not. No, we're not talking about a slave labor camp here. What if the non-productive amongst us were used to keep the productive folks, well, productive? Think organ donation before you're ready to give them up and you've got a good idea how creepy, yet eerily possible, Holmqvist's theory really is.
This novel is exceptionally well written with just the right balance of plausibility and darkness. Best of all, this is a novel that makes you question our morals and values as a society. The road to hell, as they say, is indeed paved with good intentions.
Highly recommended reading.
And now A Reader's Respite must go find a way to be productive and useful because somehow we're thinking that blogging just won't hack it.
In the mood to try this one out? You won't regret it! Leave us a comment if you're up for it and then check back here on September 17th to see if you won (international peeps, as always, are welcome to enter).
Familiar with dystopian literature? We weren't either. Chiefly because we weren't sure what the hell dystopian actually meant.
As it turns out, dystopia means - and we take this directly from the supreme source of knowlege, Wikipedia - "the vision of a society in which conditions of life are miserable and characterized by poverty, oppression, war, violence, disease, pollution, nuclear fallout and/or the abridgement of human rights, resulting in widespread unhappiness, suffering, and other kinds of pain."
Kinda like downtown Newark, New Jersey.
Certain areas notwithstanding, the Garden State is lovely. Really. No nuclear fallout here.So really, you are familiar with dystopian literature. Classic examples of the genre include H.G. Well's The Time Machine, Huxley's Brave New World, and Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
Basically any novel that required a prescription of Xanax after reading.
Oh look....Happy PillsBut good dystopian literature can provide an insight into current societal trends and open our eyes to the bigger picture.
The Unit is a newly-released novel written by Swedish author Ninni Holmgvist (with an excellent translation by Marlaine Delargy) that explores our societal obsession with productivity.
How far could we, as a society, take the concept of "usefulness"? If a human being isn't productive and contributing to society, are they useful? And what, when it comes right down to it, does it mean to contribute to society as a whole?
Enter Holmqvist's creepy world, where the "unproductive" members of society are made productive, whether they like it or not. No, we're not talking about a slave labor camp here. What if the non-productive amongst us were used to keep the productive folks, well, productive? Think organ donation before you're ready to give them up and you've got a good idea how creepy, yet eerily possible, Holmqvist's theory really is.
This novel is exceptionally well written with just the right balance of plausibility and darkness. Best of all, this is a novel that makes you question our morals and values as a society. The road to hell, as they say, is indeed paved with good intentions.
Highly recommended reading.
And now A Reader's Respite must go find a way to be productive and useful because somehow we're thinking that blogging just won't hack it.
In the mood to try this one out? You won't regret it! Leave us a comment if you're up for it and then check back here on September 17th to see if you won (international peeps, as always, are welcome to enter).
Move Over Nancy Drew, There's a New Game in Town!
Who devoured the Nancy Drew mysteries as a child? When A Reader's Respite was a fledgling young reader, we found a collection of Nancy Drew books in the attic and never looked back. Granted, the books were musty, the spines damaged, and some of the pages written on by some previous generation, but we loved those books.
Later on, we graduated to the more contemporary (for the 1980s, anyway) Trixie Belden mystery series. Not only was Trixie more up-to-date, but her best friend Honey owned horses and that was a deal-maker for us at that age.
But what is there for our newest generation of pre-teens? Vampire books? Gossip Girl? Turn of the century sexcapades masquerading as historical fiction? We think not.
A Reader's Respite is simply smitten with author Susan Runholt's new Kari + Lucas Mystery series! If you haven't heard of these books yet, trust us, you will.
Runholt's young protagonists are sharp, witty, kind-hearted and genuinely engaging characters. Their adventures are told by Kari in one of the most unique voices to come along in years. The adventures are steeped in history, art and literature as Kari and Lucas find themselves swept up in mysteries around the globe. Sound fantastical? Believe it or not, each story is completely plausible. You see, Kari and Lucas travel with Kari's mother, a writer for an international teen magazine.
In the series debut, The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, Kari and Lucas find themselves embroiled in the mystery of a newly-discovered Rembrandt painting. Don't know much about the Lucretia paintings? Don't worry, Kari will fill you in:
Now if that short excerpt isn't enough to convince you that this series is fun and unique, I don't know what will.
The Mystery of the Third Lucretia was released to all sorts of acclaim (even Booklist loved it, surprise surprise) and Runholt is following up with the next book in the series, entitled Rescuing Seneca Crane. This time, the girls find themselves in Scotland rescuing a kidnapped young piano protoge. Music, history and architecture abound in this second installment, which we daresay is even better than the first.
Now I hear you all wondering for what age group these books would be appropriate? The protagonists are fourteen, so you'd have to make your best guess from there. But we can't recommend them highly enough and trust us on this, you'll want to devour them yourselves!
Later on, we graduated to the more contemporary (for the 1980s, anyway) Trixie Belden mystery series. Not only was Trixie more up-to-date, but her best friend Honey owned horses and that was a deal-maker for us at that age.
But what is there for our newest generation of pre-teens? Vampire books? Gossip Girl? Turn of the century sexcapades masquerading as historical fiction? We think not.
A Reader's Respite is simply smitten with author Susan Runholt's new Kari + Lucas Mystery series! If you haven't heard of these books yet, trust us, you will.
Runholt's young protagonists are sharp, witty, kind-hearted and genuinely engaging characters. Their adventures are told by Kari in one of the most unique voices to come along in years. The adventures are steeped in history, art and literature as Kari and Lucas find themselves swept up in mysteries around the globe. Sound fantastical? Believe it or not, each story is completely plausible. You see, Kari and Lucas travel with Kari's mother, a writer for an international teen magazine.
In the series debut, The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, Kari and Lucas find themselves embroiled in the mystery of a newly-discovered Rembrandt painting. Don't know much about the Lucretia paintings? Don't worry, Kari will fill you in:
"Lucretia was this woman who supposedly lived in the sixth century BCE. This was, like, when they used to have gladiators. She was married to a Roman soldier who was always bragging about what a wonderful, good, pure, loving woman his wife was.
When he was off fighting some war, a guy named Sextus Tarquinius, one of his rivals, sneaked back to Rome and flirted with Lucretia to try to get her to have an affair with him. She wouldn't, so he raped her.
Now back in those days it wasn't bad enough that a woman had that kind of thing happen to her. What made it even worse was that it totally wrecked her reputation. A lot of women who got attacked like that would have been kicked out of their house. It was the kind of thing that makes my mother go on and on about what a rotten deal women have always gotten. I have to admit, it does seem pretty unfair.
Anyway, Lucretia was a truly good person. So she called her husband and her father back from the war and told them about what had happened to her. They said it wasn't her fault and it wasn't that big of a deal. But because it was so dishonourable, she picked up a dagger and killed herself. Can you believe that? Even though she didn't do anything wrong!
By the way, I'm not making this up. This may not be absolutely true, but it's a real legend. Google it."
The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, by Susan Runholt
Now if that short excerpt isn't enough to convince you that this series is fun and unique, I don't know what will.
The Mystery of the Third Lucretia was released to all sorts of acclaim (even Booklist loved it, surprise surprise) and Runholt is following up with the next book in the series, entitled Rescuing Seneca Crane. This time, the girls find themselves in Scotland rescuing a kidnapped young piano protoge. Music, history and architecture abound in this second installment, which we daresay is even better than the first.
Now I hear you all wondering for what age group these books would be appropriate? The protagonists are fourteen, so you'd have to make your best guess from there. But we can't recommend them highly enough and trust us on this, you'll want to devour them yourselves!
Confessions of a Historical Fiction Addict
A Reader's Respite has a confession to make:
We've never been a huge fan of author Philippa Gregory. While we acknowledge that she is indisputably responsible for the recent resurgence of this fantastic genre, her books have fell flat for us.
The Other Boleyn Girl? We thought it was mediocre at best. The Constant Princess? Meh. The Wideacre Series? Oh good god, the incest in those was enough to turn anyone's stomach. The King's Fool? Didn't make it past page 50. The Virgin's Lover? Ditto.
So with all the hoopla regarding Gregory's latest effort entitled The White Queen (not to mention the copy that landed on our doorstep), we thought we'd better plow through her release from last year, The Other Queen.
Remember all the fuss and muss about that novel? The anticipation of Gregory's tale of Mary Stuart, the Queen of Scots whom Elizabeth I bumped off, was palatable amongst fans everywhere. Historical fiction fanatics couldn't wait to get their hands on this novel. Amazon pre-orders were made, advance copies were devoured and then....
...it fell flat. Even Gregory's die-hard fans didn't seem to like this book. Mary was a boring subject, they claimed. The book, it was said, plodded along and raised no interest or passion on the part of the reader.
Even so, A Reader's Respite valiantly took the plunge and finally read the novel. And we loved it.
Go figure.
Before you throw up your hands, wondering why oh why we have to be so contrary all of the time, give us a chance to tell you why.
Mary was considered a stunning beauty in her time.
Simply put, we loved Mary Stuart's "voice" in this novel. The Scottish queen has confounded historians and novelists alike for many years. For those of you unaware of Mary's basic bio, allow us to give you a brief sketch (if you're familiar with the details, feel free to skip this part):
Mary was the only surviving child of Scottish King James V and Mary of Guise. When James met his maker just days after young Mary's birth, she became the Queen of Scotland at the wise old age of 6 days old. When she was sixteen, this young queen married the dauphin of France and when the old king bit the dust the very next year, Mary became Queen of France, as well.
Her young husband, the new French King, died within the year and Mary returned to Scotland to assume her throne there. She impetuously married Lord Darnley and it's here that things begin to get interesting. She and Darnley didn't exactly get along well and within two years, Darnley found himself blown to kingdom come when the house he was staying in blew up.
Who killed Darnley? Well, now, that's the sixty-four million dollar question, now isn't it? Most believed it was the Earl of Bothwell. Mary turned the kingdom on it's ear when she ran away with (or was abducted?) Bothwell and married him.
Anyhoo, she was run out of her own kingdom and when she escaped to England, her cousin Elizabeth I took this opportunity to imprison Mary where she remained until Elizabeth finally had her head lopped off for treason.
Pretty soap-operatic stuff, eh?
So how does Gregory's take of all this stack up? We thought fabulously. Although The Other Queen focuses on Mary's time in captivity in England, Gregory doesn't cop-out by ignoring Mary's scandal-ridden past. Mary's completely plausible "voice" provides both retrospection and explaination of her sometimes frustrating choices.
So in a nutshell, A Reader's Respite never thought we'd be saying this, but: Kudos, Philippa Gregory. Nice job.
Did you miss reading this one, too? Never fear, A Reader's Respite is giving you another chance to read it. Just leave a comment here and then check back on September 5th to see if you were randomly chosen. International peeps are always welcome to enter!
We've never been a huge fan of author Philippa Gregory. While we acknowledge that she is indisputably responsible for the recent resurgence of this fantastic genre, her books have fell flat for us.
The Other Boleyn Girl? We thought it was mediocre at best. The Constant Princess? Meh. The Wideacre Series? Oh good god, the incest in those was enough to turn anyone's stomach. The King's Fool? Didn't make it past page 50. The Virgin's Lover? Ditto.
So with all the hoopla regarding Gregory's latest effort entitled The White Queen (not to mention the copy that landed on our doorstep), we thought we'd better plow through her release from last year, The Other Queen.
Remember all the fuss and muss about that novel? The anticipation of Gregory's tale of Mary Stuart, the Queen of Scots whom Elizabeth I bumped off, was palatable amongst fans everywhere. Historical fiction fanatics couldn't wait to get their hands on this novel. Amazon pre-orders were made, advance copies were devoured and then....
...it fell flat. Even Gregory's die-hard fans didn't seem to like this book. Mary was a boring subject, they claimed. The book, it was said, plodded along and raised no interest or passion on the part of the reader.
Even so, A Reader's Respite valiantly took the plunge and finally read the novel. And we loved it.
Go figure.
Before you throw up your hands, wondering why oh why we have to be so contrary all of the time, give us a chance to tell you why.
Mary was considered a stunning beauty in her time.Simply put, we loved Mary Stuart's "voice" in this novel. The Scottish queen has confounded historians and novelists alike for many years. For those of you unaware of Mary's basic bio, allow us to give you a brief sketch (if you're familiar with the details, feel free to skip this part):
Mary was the only surviving child of Scottish King James V and Mary of Guise. When James met his maker just days after young Mary's birth, she became the Queen of Scotland at the wise old age of 6 days old. When she was sixteen, this young queen married the dauphin of France and when the old king bit the dust the very next year, Mary became Queen of France, as well.
Her young husband, the new French King, died within the year and Mary returned to Scotland to assume her throne there. She impetuously married Lord Darnley and it's here that things begin to get interesting. She and Darnley didn't exactly get along well and within two years, Darnley found himself blown to kingdom come when the house he was staying in blew up.
Who killed Darnley? Well, now, that's the sixty-four million dollar question, now isn't it? Most believed it was the Earl of Bothwell. Mary turned the kingdom on it's ear when she ran away with (or was abducted?) Bothwell and married him.
Anyhoo, she was run out of her own kingdom and when she escaped to England, her cousin Elizabeth I took this opportunity to imprison Mary where she remained until Elizabeth finally had her head lopped off for treason.
Pretty soap-operatic stuff, eh?
So how does Gregory's take of all this stack up? We thought fabulously. Although The Other Queen focuses on Mary's time in captivity in England, Gregory doesn't cop-out by ignoring Mary's scandal-ridden past. Mary's completely plausible "voice" provides both retrospection and explaination of her sometimes frustrating choices.
So in a nutshell, A Reader's Respite never thought we'd be saying this, but: Kudos, Philippa Gregory. Nice job.
Did you miss reading this one, too? Never fear, A Reader's Respite is giving you another chance to read it. Just leave a comment here and then check back on September 5th to see if you were randomly chosen. International peeps are always welcome to enter!
WTF Wednesday
Did Michael Phelps get a dog? Help us out here 'cause we don't get this.
WTF Wednesdays are brought to you by The Book Resort!
Cutesy, Cozy Mystery Alert!
Okay all of you cozy mystery lovers out there....new series alert! Bundle of Trouble is the first book of the new Maternal Instincts Mysteries by author Diana Orgain and mothers everywhere can rejoice.
New mother Kate Connolly has just given birth to her first child when she inadvertently finds herself embroiled in the mystery of her brother-in-law's disappearance. When the private investigator working the case winds up in the hospital, Kate finds herself solving not only the mystery of her brother-in-law, but possibly the mystery of how to avoid returning to her 9-5 office job at the end of her maternity leave.
Diana Orgain does a crack job of creating a plausible whodunit with a delightful protagonist. No deep, dark undercurrents in this new series and we're fairly certain that's just the way Ms. Orgain intended it. Upbeat and light-hearted (even, some might say, a bit saccharine at times), Kate Connolly's new mommy status brings back fond memories of those first hectic weeks with an infant.
Mother's everywhere who like a cozy mystery now and again will most certainly enjoy this fun, quick read. Ms. Orgain delivers! (Bad, bad pun. Get over it.)
We like.
We especially like getting in on the beginning of a new series!
Do you want in on the first book of a new series? Leave us a comment and on September 1st, A Reader's Respite will draw a random winner to receive Bundle of Trouble!
How to do it wrong and how to do it right. Sort of.
Yes, we know it seems as if A Reader's Respite is really picking on poor Anna Godbersen for her Luxe Series lately. But it is a series and since each successive book of the series seems worse than the last, who are we to turn down such fodder?
As most of you know by now, A Reader's Respite has been plodding our way through this horny-wealthy-elite-teenager- New York Society soap opera set in 1899 that's being billed as "historical fiction for teens."
We lamented the first in the series here, then later questioned our messed-up rationale for purchasing the second in the series here.
Yet even knowing what we were in for when we turned to that first page, we masochistically pressed onward. This time, we were rewarded with even more unrealistic hormone-crazed rich teenagers in turn-of-the-century New York having sex every chance they got. And trust us, you have no idea how many chances these societal teens had to have sex. Evidently, the sexual revolution actually occurred in 1899 New York.
They also found ways to fake their own deaths, blackmail each other into marriage (hey, at least the marriage part is an improvement), and run away with the stable help to California. Even their maids get in on the action here by acquiring a bit of cash and are perfectly able to sneak their way into the highest social circles with no one being the wiser.
But the icing on the cake? Well we won't ruin it completely for you, but suffice it to say that it involves a bearskin rug, a teenage girl with an older boy, lots of sex and all with in the confines of said girl's bedroom which just happens to be located within one of New York's most distinguished homes.
Clearly, parental supervision did not play a large role for teenage societal girls back then. Who knew?
Now all of this is not to claim that no one engaged in sex in turn-of-the-century New York. The birth rate of the time clearly refutes that. But if you'd like a better sense of high society scandal during this time period, we'd recommend that you turn to Paula Uruburu's new non-fiction expose of Evelyn Nesbit, entitled American Eve.
Not familiar with Evelyn Nesbit? Why, she was the original "It" girl, of course. The first supermodel, if you will. At only 16 years old, she was the most photographed woman of her time; the epitome of female beauty in 1900.
So it's not surprising that Evelyn inspired great passion in men and even greater scandal when her millionaire New York society husband murdered her lover.
True story, folks. The trial was a sensation and Evelyn became a legend in her own time.
Author Paula Uruburu's research is meticulous and while sometimes the book gets a bit heavy with hyperbole, the portrait of New York society at the turn of the century is stark and real.
With nary a bearskin rug to be found anywhere, thank goodness.
Now on to the giveaways.....A Reader's Respite is happy to offer a copy of American Eve to one lucky entrant. Just leave a comment here (all comers welcome, any country, any where) and on August 31st, we'll announce a winner, so be sure to check back and see if it's you!
And for those of you who find yourself intrigued by the trainwreck of The Luxe Series, just be patient and A Reader's Respite will be offering a giveaway of the entire series not too far in the future!
As most of you know by now, A Reader's Respite has been plodding our way through this horny-wealthy-elite-teenager- New York Society soap opera set in 1899 that's being billed as "historical fiction for teens."
We lamented the first in the series here, then later questioned our messed-up rationale for purchasing the second in the series here.
Yet even knowing what we were in for when we turned to that first page, we masochistically pressed onward. This time, we were rewarded with even more unrealistic hormone-crazed rich teenagers in turn-of-the-century New York having sex every chance they got. And trust us, you have no idea how many chances these societal teens had to have sex. Evidently, the sexual revolution actually occurred in 1899 New York.
They also found ways to fake their own deaths, blackmail each other into marriage (hey, at least the marriage part is an improvement), and run away with the stable help to California. Even their maids get in on the action here by acquiring a bit of cash and are perfectly able to sneak their way into the highest social circles with no one being the wiser.
But the icing on the cake? Well we won't ruin it completely for you, but suffice it to say that it involves a bearskin rug, a teenage girl with an older boy, lots of sex and all with in the confines of said girl's bedroom which just happens to be located within one of New York's most distinguished homes.
Clearly, parental supervision did not play a large role for teenage societal girls back then. Who knew?
Now all of this is not to claim that no one engaged in sex in turn-of-the-century New York. The birth rate of the time clearly refutes that. But if you'd like a better sense of high society scandal during this time period, we'd recommend that you turn to Paula Uruburu's new non-fiction expose of Evelyn Nesbit, entitled American Eve.
Not familiar with Evelyn Nesbit? Why, she was the original "It" girl, of course. The first supermodel, if you will. At only 16 years old, she was the most photographed woman of her time; the epitome of female beauty in 1900.
So it's not surprising that Evelyn inspired great passion in men and even greater scandal when her millionaire New York society husband murdered her lover.
True story, folks. The trial was a sensation and Evelyn became a legend in her own time.
Author Paula Uruburu's research is meticulous and while sometimes the book gets a bit heavy with hyperbole, the portrait of New York society at the turn of the century is stark and real.
With nary a bearskin rug to be found anywhere, thank goodness.
Now on to the giveaways.....A Reader's Respite is happy to offer a copy of American Eve to one lucky entrant. Just leave a comment here (all comers welcome, any country, any where) and on August 31st, we'll announce a winner, so be sure to check back and see if it's you!
And for those of you who find yourself intrigued by the trainwreck of The Luxe Series, just be patient and A Reader's Respite will be offering a giveaway of the entire series not too far in the future!
You know you're behind on book reviews when....
.....when you notice that a book in your review pile already has a sequel published.
Just an observation.
Just an observation.
Quick, Two Winners!
A Reader's Respite is in a huge hurry this early, early morning in New York. Our flight departs in 20 minutes and everyone is wondering why the Captain is frantically typing away on this laptop.
you try blogging in this mess. we dare you.So, quick, two winners of Nadine Dajani's novel Cutting Loose are in order! (Many thanks to the gate agent at Gate 70 who picked two random numbers!)
Congrats to
You both won a copy! Please email us your mailing address so we can drop it out of the airplane over your house (kidding. sort of.)
Gotta run!
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