Time and Again by Jack Finney

Chances are you may have heard of this classic novel. First published in 1970, Jack Finney's book has earned it's place among the very best of time-travel stories ever published, both for it's inventive plot and it's illustrations --- oh yes, this is a gorgeously illustrated novel, something few bibliophiles can resist. 

I was more than a little thrilled when I heard that Touchstone was re-releasing this Jack Finney's novel with fully restored artwork. I first read this some twenty years ago, but like all good stories, it was deserving of a re-read. It is one of those novels that withstand the test of time...I enjoyed it even more the second time around. Although Time and Again has always been something of a cult classic, I'd be happy to see it gain the wider, cross-genre audience it truly deserves. Because it is a cross-genre story: science fiction, adventure, historical fiction, romance....Time and Again has always had something for everyone.

Simon Morley's time travel back to 1882 New York City isn't accidental at all. Indeed, he volunteered for the government's top-secret, experimental project. But what Si - and the reader - perhaps isn't prepared for is the actual experience of 19th century New York. And this is what Finney so masterfully provides. The sights, the sounds, the smells - it's all there. And the illustrations and photos? Absolutely perfect. This is arm-chair travel at it's finest. 

Of course, it wouldn't be a whopping tale without a little adventure and romance. Si must contend with blackmail, police corruption, and escape disaster....hey, no one ever said 1882 New York was a safe place to hang out.

While Finney tends to get a little long-winded with description, he must be forgiven due to his impeccable research of the period. Everything he writes here evokes the history of New York City and it's absolutely gorgeous -- corruption and all. 

If the idea of time travel to change past events sounds quite familiar to you, take a gander at the author's note of Stephen King's best-selling novel 11/22/63. In it, he credits Finney's work, calling Time and Again "the great time-travel story." In many ways, he is absolutely right.

Recommended reading!

****************

Title: Time and Again

Author: Jack Finney

Publisher: Touchstone (re-release)

Date: April 8, 2014

Pages: 399

Source: Publisher

A Burnable Book

Holsinger's debut novel, A Burnable Book, hits bookstores everywhere today and this is one book that merits close attention. A literary thriller that forces the reader to pay close attention and hang on for the ride, A Burnable Book takes us to Chaucer's London - 1385 - where a heretical book has gone missing and everyone from the highest nobility to the lowest prostitute wants to find it, albeit for different reasons.

John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and Uncle to King Richard II

Narrated by John Gower, a close friend of Chaucer and notable English poet himself, the importance of the missing book is gradually revealed throughout the novel. From the treason-tainted halls of John of Gaunt and his infamous mistress Katherine Swynford waft the seeds of rebellion against the newly-crowned English King Richard II, where the missing book could provide information that could elevate Gaunt to the crown or destroy him forever. 

Chaucer

Poet Geoffrey Chaucer has his own reasons for desperately seeking the missing book but discerning those reasons is more difficult than navigating the back streets of 14th century London. Whatever his reasons, he is willing to manipulate anyone and everyone - risking lifelong friendships in the process - in order to get his hands on the missing book.

The book proves even more elusive when it accidentally falls into the hands of a common street prostitute - one smart enough to know what she has is valuable, even if she isn't entirely sure why. The chase is on.....and people are about to find out that their life is cheaper than a book.

The end result is a helluva ride through medieval London, thanks to Holsinger's intense knowledge of the period - he is a medievalist professor at the University of Virginia's English Department - which results the most fun a reader can have while receiving a history lesson. Nothing about this novel is spoon-fed; keep up or drop out of the game. But I can confirm that it is worth your while to keep up - this is one of the best historical thrillers I have yet to read. Smart, fast-paced, and requiring reader intelligence....a little slice of heaven right here. Highly recommended.

Title: A Burnable Book

Author: Bruce Holsinger

Publisher: William Morrow

Date: February 18, 2014

Pages: 464

Source: Publisher 

Worthy Brown's Daughter

Behold the historical legal thriller. Author Phillip Margolin, popular for his contemporary legal thrillers, has written a new novel and this one, while featuring all the legal twists and turns his work is so famous for, features something new: it is set in the 19th-century.

Margolin actually began writing this novel over twenty years ago while still a practicing attorney in the 1980s. While performing legal research, he stumbled across an old historical case from the 1800s, Holmes v. Ford, in which a man brought a family of slaves with him when he moved to Pacific Northwest promising them he would free them after he established his farm in Oregon, a state that while prohibiting slavery was also quite hostile towards blacks at the time. But Mr. Holmes didn't entirely keep his promise and only freed a portion of his family of slaves, keeping some of the children, one of whom died under his dubious care.  If the family wanted their remaining children back, they needed a lawyer and a damned good one. And he needed to be white. 

Historical tidbits like these create great novels and that is just what Margolin did with Worthy Brown's Daughter. He fictionalizes this riveting case, but includes so many real characters - including the only United States Supreme Court Justice to be arrested for murder while sitting on the bench - that it reads like a taut true-crime book. Perhaps most disturbing is the sharp reminder of our own country's path towards civil rights, most of which we associate with the Southern states and rarely give a thought to its evolution in the West.

For those accustomed to Margolin's thrillers, there are plenty of good guys and bad guys to go around. And our brilliant attorney who comes to the aid of the dispossessed ex-slaves is, of course, utterly brilliant. Do the good guys win? Well, as with anything to do with slavery and civil rights, the answer is somewhat murky. You can win a battle, but that doesn't mean you've won the war. Nevertheless, Margolin's novel is inspiring and a rollicking good read.

Title: Worthy Brown's Daughter

Author: Phillip Margolin

Publisher: Harper

Date: January 21, 2014

Pages: 352

Source: Publisher

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald and a Digression of Epic Proportions

After waiting weeks and weeks on the library hold list for Therese Anne Fowler's novel, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, my number finally came up. And overall it was worth the wait. Fowler fictionalizes the wild and crazy life of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his infamous wife, as told in first person by Zelda.

Beginning with her first meeting of Scott as a young southern debutante, Zelda takes us through the tumultuous early years of their unconventional marriage as Scott struggled to establish himself as a writer of merit on the literary scene in New York City. Living far beyond their means led to extraordinary years as expats in Europe and although they couldn't know it at the time, Scott and Zelda would come to define this Lost Generation of artists in the wake of the Great War - an entire generation who never quite knew who or what they really stood for.

Fowler, understandably, sympathizes greatly with Zelda. This becomes especially apparent in Zelda's later - and most fascinating - years when she suffered the most. Some, of course, claim she suffered emotional breakdowns. Given the time period, when women were still legally the property of their husband, I find the breakdown theory questionable, but the fact remains that she did exhibit some, ahem, odd behavior. But heck, don't we all now and again, right?

Either way, Fowler does a fine job and the novel is well worth your time and effort.

I was perhaps most drawn to this novel not because of any special interest in Zelda herself, but because it is simply impossible to separate Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald from that absolute nemesis of the literary world, Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway, or as I like to refer to him, Misogynist Bastard, despised Zelda Fitzgerald with every fiber of his being. And being close friends (or as much of a friend as a selfish egotist can possibly be) with Scott Fitzgerald, he liked to take every opportunity he could over the years to encourage his "friend" to ditch the flapper who was holding him and his writing back. Um, okay.

No one knows why Misogynist Bastard hated Zelda so much, although there are plenty of theories to go around. But the fact is that Hemingway hated most women that crossed his path. Oh, he liked them enough to bed them, maybe even marry a handful if it suited his needs at the moment (if you haven't read Paula McLain's The Paris Wife, this is a fairly good read that ties in with Fowler's novel as it covers the Misogynist Bastard's first wife, Hadley). But if you've investigated the life of Ernest Hemingway, you know that it is difficult, if not downright impossible, to find any likable personal qualities about the smarmy little shit.

And I'm not afraid to admit that this has most certainly tainted my interpretation of his literary work.  For instance, my good friend James over at The Scholar's Fane (who, by the way, is about a thousand times smarter than me when it comes to this literary stuff) recently explained Hemingway to me:

He's an enigma, to be sure--in many ways an awful example of a man, all things considered, whose work can seem overly simplistic and unexpressive, and yet...as his "iceberg theory" purports, so much is intimated by that forceful brevity, mountains of implication lurking beneath its surface. And in much the same way, underlying the thick layer of chauvinism and braggadocio lay a lust for life, passion for literature, and dedication to the craft that was at many times unparalleled, unrivaled by even the best of Hemingway's contemporaries.

My response? He sucked. Brevity became his signature because the man had NOTHING TO SAY.

We then went on to talk about Misogynist Bastard's Moveable Feast, which James loved:

Moveable Feast was such an excellent read because it was much the same as his fiction, which was often based in fact, but without that affected veneer of fiction. It's a more direct insight into the man, as well as the era. The expat literary scene in Paris at the time--with Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald--was truly remarkable, nigh-legendary, in terms of creative output. Hemingway introduces a degree of humanity otherwise lacking in the typical romanticized view of those lives and times.

My response? Yes, if you call a degree of humanity asshole-ishness.

So the moral of this conversation, I suppose, is that you need to visit The Scholar's Fane for high-minded literary discussions that are capable of separating the author from their work.  Because I seem to be incapable of doing so.

At least when it comes to Misogynist Bastard.

I told you this was going to be a digression of epic proportions. You were warned.


Title:  Z: A Novel of Zelda
Author:  Therese Anne Fowler
Date: 2013
Pages: 384
Publisher: St. Martin's
Source:  Library Copy

Rating:  4 good stars

Review: Mrs. Poe

Author Lynn Cullen's newest novel, Mrs. Poe, is a fictional look at the alleged intimate relationship between two 19th century literary powerhouses: Edgar Allan Poe and Frances Osgood.  Both trapped in unhappy marriages during a time when divorce was simply not an option, Poe and Osgood were a central part of New York's literati...one would become a household name, the other would largely be lost to history.

Edgar

As the title suggests, the novel takes great pains to encompass the ramifications of the literary couple's affair, specifically the emotional damage done to Poe's young wife, also - for those of you who know your Poe history - his first cousin.  A beautiful young woman (Poe married her when she was only 13 years old) Eliza Poe was not known for her *ahem* mental stability. Needless to say, Cullen puts this to good use throughout the novel (what author worth her salt wouldn't?) and Eliza flits across the pages as creepy as anything Poe himself ever wrote.

Frances

Our protagonist, Frances Osgood, was herself an abandoned wife with two young daughters to raise living off the charity and goodwill of her New York friends. Her relationship with Poe was mysterious and while no one has ever been able to definitively prove she was sexually involved with Poe, it seemed a good bet at the time since he was known to eviscerate every other writer and poet he came across except, curiously, Frances' work. Given that she wrote poems about flowers and love (not exactly Poe's cup of tea), you can see where the rumors might have started.

Cullen gives us a sympathetic Frances who knows darned good and well that a relationship with Poe is not, repeat not, a good idea. But how many women have known that and been unable to resist anyway? Yeah, that's what I thought, too.  So I kept reading. In fact, between the little bit of sexy Cullen gave Poe and the more than a little bit of creepy she gave the Mrs. Poe, I found myself picking up this book every chance I got.  At the kid's soccer practice, at the doctor's office, waiting for the school bus.  

Now I'm not saying this one is going to be nominated for any literary awards or anything like that. In fact, there was a small scene towards the end of the novel that was completely unnecessary and irritated me beyond reason. I had to decide later whether I was going to let that one stupid scene ruin the entire book for me. Ultimately, the answer was no if only because it only lasted a couple of pages and I could ignore it. If you ever pick up the book, you will know what I am referring to.  But for now I will let it go (let it go, Michele, just let it go) and tell you that while the book isn't for everyone, it was an enjoyable light read for me if only because I've always loved Edgar Allan Poe (dead man crush alert).  Cullen kept the plot moving, writing a suitably sexy Poe and deviously creepy Eliza.  Kudos!

Title: Mrs. Poe

Author: Lynn Cullen

Publisher:  Gallery Books

Date:  October 1, 2013

Pages: 336

Source:  Publisher

Rating:  4 Stars

The Top Ten Historical Fiction Authors. Says Who?

A little feature article appeared in yesterday's edition of the Washington Independent Review of Books entitled The Top Ten Historical Fiction Authors.  The very first thing you should understand about this list is that it is the result of a reader's poll and not, repeat NOT, the opinion of the article author, M.K. Tod.  The poll was conducted at Tod's personal website, A World of History.

The list reads as follows:

1. Sharon Kay Penman
2. Philippa Gregory
3. Elizabeth Chadwick
4. Diana Gabaldon
5. Bernard Cornwell
6. Ken Follett
7. Anya Seton
8. C.W. Gortner
9. Alison Weir
10. Margaret George (tie)
11. Georgette Heyer (tie)

Sharon Kay Penman

The list turned out *ahem* interesting.  The good news is that readers quickly acknowledged legendary historical fiction writers like Sharon Kay Penman, Elizabeth Chadwick, Anya Seton, Bernard Cornwell, Georgette Heyer, and Margaret George as among the best of the best of this amazing genre.

Philippa Gregory

Others, such as Philippa Gregory, may not be my own personal favorites but I have to give credit where credit is due.  It was Gregory, after all, who turned historical fiction from a specialized genre often lumped in with fantasy and sci-fi into mainstream fiction that now, more often than not, graces the front displays in most bookstores.  She made historical fiction cool.  Whether I like her novels or not, my hat goes off to her for that feat and historical fiction authors everywhere owe her a debt of gratitude.

But there is one name conspicuously missing.  If you are a regular reader of historical fiction, I'm willing to bet you spotted it immediately.

If Philippa Gregory can be credited with bringing historical fiction into the mainstream, it is Hilary Mantel who proved that historical fiction was also capable of being prize-worthy literary fiction.  Wolf Hall and it's sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, were both (yes, you read that correctly, BOTH) recipients of the Man Booker Award.  For Mantel's work to go un-noted in Tod's poll in favor of authors like Gortner and Weir (who are both fine writers, don't misunderstand, just no where near Mantel's level!  Apples and oranges, my friends, apples and oranges....) is a downright shame and led to me reaching for blood-pressure medication.  Oh, that's right, I don't have any.

Hilary Mantel

I can only assume that our dear readers who participated in the poll haven't yet gotten their hands on Mantel's work yet.  Or perhaps they didn't understand it.  That second-person POV was pesky to understand at first.  So I'm going to give everyone who struggled with that a big ol' tip that you will positively thank me for later:

Go and get your hands on the audiobook version.  Trust me on this.  You see, the narrator gets it.  And when he gets it, YOU get it.  You will love, love, love these books.  Really.  They are amazing. Hilary Mantel will be your new favorite historical fiction author.  And then you will see what a travesty this little poll really is.

The Unpopular Post

Brace yourself.  I am about to alienate the three readers I have left.  You see, one of the little reading projects I've had going on around here over the past month or so is the quest to get caught up on Diana Gabaldon's Outlander Series before she releases the (allegedly) final book in the series, Written in My Own Heart's Blood, due out in March 2014. Now I know you all are familiar with this series, even if you have never actually read the books.  Every bibliophile has at least heard about the infamous time-traveling Claire and her too-handsome-to-be-believed Scottish love Jamie Fraser.

The first novel hit bookstores in 1991 (can you believe it's been that long?) and six others have followed along with a novella and a best-not-mentioned graphic novel.  Okay.  I'm going to mention it anyway.  It was horrid.  Claire's breasts got larger and larger in each frame until I became convinced they were filling with helium and she might actually float away by the end of the book.  But hey, Gabaldon made a few million more and everyone (except the readers, that is) walked away happy.

But let's get back to the novels themselves.  Because the anticipation over Written in My Own Heart's Blood is palpable in the literary world these days and as I claw my way through novel #6, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, I find myself repeating one question over and over:  WHY?  Because frankly, dear readers, the novel I am reading here is sub par at best.  

Spoiler alert here people.  If you haven't read the books yet, chances are you never will, so get over it.  At this point in the overall plot of the series, Jamie and Claire are ensconced in pre-Revolutionary America, homesteading it up in the mountains of North Carolina with their daughter Brianna and her husband Roger. And that's pretty much all we get throughout the novel.  The only entertainment to be found is the utterly ridiculous POV changes that occur nearly every chapter.  I'm uncertain whether Gabaldon did this to entertain herself (let's face it, she had to have been bored to tears with Jamie and Claire by now, but who want to kill a cash cow?) or simply to see what she could get away with.  Either way, if the writer were anyone but Gabaldon, they would be skewered for the poor technique which leaves a reader muddled, confused, and unsatisfied.

So here I am in the middle of a book that is a complete mess with a plot that goes nowhere, jumping POVs, and sex scenes between characters that six books ago were sexy but now verge on creepy.  Any other book, I would toss it.  But it's Gabaldon.  So I soldier on.  And when I finish this one there little doubt I will bravely pick up An Echo in the Bone.  Undoubtedly, I will pre-order Written in My Own Heart's Blood.

Although I promise you this: if I see just one explicit sex scene with a geriatric Claire and Jamie, I will refuse to read another word.  Not. One. More. Word.

Ever.

Have you seen me?

It's finally happened.  Someone has kidnapped author Philippa Gregory's editor.  There really can be no other explanation for the content of her latest book, The Lady of the Rivers, the final installment (we hope) of her Cousin's War series of historical fiction about the influential women during England's Wars of the Roses.

Now we understand that the people who took part in the Wars of the Roses were numerous and convoluted.  Really convoluted.  And everyone had the same damned name.  So admittedly, it's hard to keep track of who is who.  Gregory chose to solve this problem by inserting everyone's full legal name and title every time she mentioned them.

Every. Single. Time.

So you can imagine the dialog that resulted.  For example, here is Jacquetta speaking to her oldest and dearest friend, Margaret of Anjou - a woman who has known Jacquetta for years....

"I think that Richard, Duke of York, is the only man to successfully hold French lands since my first husband, the Duke of Bedford."

Well of course Margaret would know that Richard was the Duke of York.  He is Margaret's greatest enemy at court and they've hated each other for years, for the love of Pete.  And of course Margaret would know Jacquetta's first husband was the Duke of Bedford.  Jeez Louise.  

In a similar vein, one doesn't need to reference your brother-in-law's title when speaking to one's husband....trust us, he KNOWS his brother is the Duke of whatever.

And this kind of redundant, see-Jane-run dialog persists through out the entire novel.  It's enough to drive a reader mad.

Truthfully, we can't blame Gregory too much for this nonsense.  It is, after all, an editor's job is to fix things like this.  So ultimately, we can only reach one conclusion:

SOMEONE KIDNAPPED THE EDITOR!

Any information leading to the safe recovery of said editor will, we are certain, result in a huge reward.

The Weekend Edition: Rated R

For some strange reason, there has been an upsurge of mentions of Philippa Gregory's old Wideacre Series in and around blogland the past couple of weeks.  We're not sure why that is, but it revives old nightmares for A Reader's Respite.  This series of three novels (of which we only made it through one and half) might mark the very first instance we can recall of absolutely *hating* a book. 

Now you wouldn't think that a book lover such as ourselves would be unable to find any redeeming characteristic of any given book.  But it's true.  We thought the Wideacre series to be so depraved that it reflected horribly on the author....what on earth could she have been thinking?

And it's recently come to our attention that we weren't the only readers to have to grab a throw-up bowl to make it through one of these novels.....the following video blogs (part 1 and 2) were discovered on YouTube and are, quite possibly, the funniest book rants we've ever had the privilege of listening to.

WARNING:  These are rated R for language and content!  Do not -- we repeat -- do NOT be listening to these in the work place, in front of the kidlets or the in-laws, or in a public location where you'll get nasty looks.  For the love of books, plug in a headset, people!  (Then laugh yourself silly....)

Inauspicious Beginnings

Just a few days ago, A Reader's Respite was merrily wishing each of you a year of good reading in 2011.  Too bad we forgot to wish the same for ourselves.  If we had, mayhap we would have been spared the absolute disaster newly released by Delacorte Press, entitled Vixen.

With a glitzy cover just begging for the impulse-buy rack at Barnes & Nobel, Vixen is the first of a proposed trilogy (Dear God, help us) marketed for the Gossip-Girl generation.  Set in the 1920s, the storyline follows a rich teen socialite who wants nothing more out of life than to follow her heart and be a flapper.  Of course, she has to overcome some obstacles first:

1. Her evil betrothed (think of him as a 1920s version of The Bachelor)
2. Her insanely jealous, but not as rich or beautiful, BFF
3. Her mysterious, but beautiful, cousin who has a deep, dark secret

Any of this sounding familiar, folks?

If you happened to have read any one of author Anna Godbersen's The Luxe Series (a travesty in and of itself), alarm bells are likely going off in your head right about now.

Because Vixen is almost a carbon copy of Godbersen's books, from the main protagonist who just wants to follow her own heart to the conniving BFF.  Author Jillian Larkin simply changed the setting from New York to Chicago and cut out some paper-doll flapper clothes and slapped them on her characters.

Similar to The Luxe books, there is absolutely no historical fiction value here.  The historical part only serves as a costume for the characters to wear.  There is no essence of the time period despite a few catch-phrases of the times ("you're the bees-knees!"), one would assume the setting is present day.

An overload of rich-girl scheming, drinking, and back-stabbing make for an extremely predictable plot (maybe because it's been written before) with awkward dialogue and no historical merits whatsoever.

the incomparable Zelda

If the era of the flappers interests you, you'd do far better to reach for Nancy Milford's excellent biography of the original flapper, Zelda Fitzgerald.  Through Zelda one comes to understand that being a flapper wasn't just about bobbing your hair and smoking a cigarette.  It was a state of mind and a way of life that women were adapting to break free of the chains (and corsets) that restricted them throughout the Victorian era.

Ultimately, Vixen and its sequels are simply Delacort's effort at a quick cash infusion.  And with such a huge marketing campaign behind it, coupled with the truth that trash sells, it will likely meet with large success.

In the meantime, A Reader's Respite is starting our New Year's Resolution List:

1. Don't be suckered in with a glitzy cover and a vague historical fiction description
2. (not sure, but we'll be adding to the list as the year goes on....)

Postscript:  Our copy?  In an unfortunate twist of events, we ended up with two review copies (that's twice the pain).  Just because we didn't pay a cent for it doesn't mean it gets a good review.  We calls them as we sees them around here.

Historical Fiction, Modern Sensibilities

A Reader's Respite recently picked up a second-hand copy of a 2010 historical fiction release written by author Christy English, entitled The Queen's Pawn.  Despite the horrid cover art (really, Penguin Group, what were you thinking here?), the novel features a rather obscure historical protagonist:  Alys, a princess of France and daughter of King Louis VII who was bethrothed to Richard the Lionheart of England before he was king.  If you are a fan of old movies, you might remember Alys on the big screen in the epic film The Lion in Winter:

Cast of The Lion in Winter, starring Peter O'Toole as Henry II and Katherine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine

Ho hum, you're probably thinking, yet another forgotten royal in medieval Europe, how original. 

 But Alys had quite a bit of scandal attached to her.  When Alys was betrothed to young Richard at the tender age of eight, the custom of the time demanded that she be shipped over to England to be raised in the court of Richard's father, King Henry II, until she was of age to be wed.  But by the age of fifteen or so, Alys and Richard had still not wed and rumor had it that Alys had become the mistress of her fiance's father, ol' Henry II, and had even born him a child.

As if that weren't scandalous enough, check this out:  Alys was the daughter of French King Louis VII and his second wife.  Lou's first wife was none other than the infamous Eleanor of Aquitaine, the woman who divorced him so she could marry, who else, but Henry II of England.  That's right, Richard's father.  So Alys was getting it on with not only her fiance's father, but the husband of her father's first wife.

Whew.  You keeping up here?

So how does The Queen's Pawn measure up?  As a historical novel, pretty darned well.  Since very little is known about the Princess Alys, the author has a lot of latitude to work with here.  She alternates chapters between Alys and Queen Eleanor,  imagining a wholly plausible rivalry between the two.  But it is the relationship between Alys and King Henry that takes center stage.  Their passionate affair fairly smokes right off the pages.  

And yet it must be remembered that young Alys was only fifteen or sixteen years old at this time.  Lolita, anyone?  Historically speaking, of course, women in medieval Europe were married much, much younger than today.  (The infamous Lady Margaret Beaufort being the perfect example:  she gave birth to Henry VII at the tender age of thirteen....good grief.)  But in The Queen's Pawn, Alys is the aggressor and instigator, seducing the forty-ish Henry and fairly dragging him into the sack.  Sometimes historical accuracy and modern sensibilities make for an uncomfortable read and A Reader's Respite salutes the author for not changing the ages of the characters just to make a more acceptable novel (and for the comprehensive author's note about this included).

If we had any quibble with the novel it was the habit various characters had of simply looking into someone's eyes and divining far too much information.

"I saw in his eyes that he wanted us to build our own alliance, a love born from our common loneliness." (page 76)

"I saw in his eyes that he had come back for Alais." (page 100)

"His eyes seemed to tell me......" (page 141)

Indeed, with so much information being beamed around the room by expression alone, it was a wonder any dialog at all was necessary.  

But medieval telepathy aside, the novel kept us merrily entertained for two days and for that, hats off to the author.  If you're in the mood for a good medieval soap opera, pick up a copy and enjoy.

Jennifer Donnelly Rocks Our World....

Yes, we know A Reader's Respite has been a tad scarce lately.  But it is the holiday season and we all know what that means:  every person in America feels compelled to jump on an airplane and fly somewhere.  Which means that our day job is keeping us very, very busy.  And no matter how many times we make the announcement, "We thank you for your business," well, it's a lie.  A big one.

A Reader's Respite is, in fact, not very grateful for long airport security lines, overcrowded and delayed airplanes, and people creating their own little Tent City in the airport next to our gate.  Go home, please.  Go home and stay at home and be merry around your own hearth and tree.  Read a book.

In fact, here are two books that might spark your interest.  Jennifer Donnelly is perhaps best known for her historical fiction series, The Tea Rose Trilogy.  But did you know she also writes young adult historical fiction?  And she writes it very well.

Her most recent publication is a young adult novel called Revolution.  The story vacillates between present day and the days leading up to the French Revolution.  When  troubled teen Andi Alpers finds herself unwillingly whisked off to Paris with her father to sort out her angst-ridden life (you know it's fiction right there, when someone is unwillingly whisked off to Paris....), she unexpectedly uncovers an old diary written by a girl, Alexandrine, who is caught up in the Revolution of 1789.

Donnelly does an excellent job of bringing the Revolution to life, both for Andi and the reader.  It doesn't ever lose it's YA feel, however, although teens are likely to appreciate Donnelly's understanding of their angst.  Moments of humor in present-day Andi's life take the edge off of the tenseness of Alexandrine's diary and as the novel reaches it's climax, the lines between present day and the past become increasingly blurred.

We enjoyed Revolution enough to take note that Donnelly had written an earlier YA historical fiction novel, A Northern Light and of course, A Reader's Respite couldn't resist buying a copy.  While we merely enjoyed Revolution, we were blown away with A Northern Light, a novel which made the American Library Association's Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults list.

Donnelly took the 1906 murder of Grace Brown in the Adirondack Mountains (a case that inspired Theodore Dreiser's classic An American Tragedy) and created full,  rich historical fiction with some of the most beautiful characters to grace the pages of a YA novel.

Grace's mysterious death provides the backbone for a plethora of fictional characters who leap to life.  Young Mattie, who desires nothing more than leaving this small northern town to pursue a college eduction (something that rural young women simply do not do in 1906).  Her family, her neighbors and friends are painted so vividly by Donnelly that at times it sweeps your breath away.  Mattie's choices - or seemingly lack thereof - are heartbreaking and oh, so real.

Unexpectedly, it is the death of young Grace that leads Mattie to the answers she needs and ultimately, will change her entire life.

Both novels are good reads and well worth your time, but in the end we recommend that you buy a copy of Revolution for your favorite teen and buy the copy of A Northern Light for yourself.

Happy reading.  And stay away from airports.

A Royal Scandal

Title:  The King's Mistress
Author:  Emma Campion
Publisher:  Crown
464 pages
ISBN:  978-0307589255
Source:  Amazon Vine Program
Grade:  B








Royal scandals - even ones that took place several hundred years ago - are a guaranteed way to sell a book. The trick, for the savvy historical fiction author, is finding a royal scandal that hasn't been done over and over and over and over. And over. (Seriously.  One more dysfunctional Tudor might send us over the edge.)

Enter new historical fiction author Emma Campion who has capitalized on her medieval and Anglo-Saxon literature education by writing a novel about the villified and scandalous mistress of England's King Edward III.

Eddie, you old goat.

Her name was Alice Perrers and she was a simple commoner who history has largely forgotten. What little is known about her has been anything but flattering and a handful of historical novelists have vilified her even more over the years.

Campion turns it all around and wonders what if Alice Perrers wasn't the evil seductress that history records her to be?

So here's the history:  Edward III ruled England for fifty (!) years in the mid 14th-century.  He was married to a lovely and popular woman by the name of Philippa of Hainault, who was a baby-making machine, giving birth to fourteen children throughout their marriage.

 Queen Philippa

But men being men (and kings being kings), when Philippa became ill and virtually incapacitating (gee, could it have been related to punching out FOURTEEN babies?), Eddie developed a wandering eye.  Enter Alice Perrers, a merchants wife that caught Eddie's fancy and became his mistress.

Evidently Alice made Eddie quite happy because he lavished her gifts, land, jewelry and money.  Lots of it.  And as you can probably imagine, this didn't sit too well with Eddie's kids and other greedy nobles sitting in the corner wanting their piece of the pie.  In Eddie's waning days, much was made over Alice's control over the King and her enrichment of herself and her friends.

In fact, after Eddie kicked the bucket, Alice was even put on trial and lost most of her lands.

New historical fiction author Emma Campion takes a new tact....she surmises that Alice wasn't the devil in disguise history makes her out to be and was really a victim in the whole mess.  And she's got a good premise here because really, if Alice was just a commoner, how much choice would she have had in the matter if the King of England decided he wanted her to decorate his bed?  Probably not much if she valued what little she had in life.

But like all good things, it's possible to go too far and that is exactly what this otherwise well-written novel suffers from:  too much goody-two-shoes Alice.  While it is indeed likely that Alice wasn't entirely evil, there is  usually a kernel of truth buried inside of all historical reputations.  As the novel continues, the reader's faith in Alice's saintliness wears thin.

Saccharine aside, Campion has a good grasp of the era and passes that on to the reader in easily digestible fiction.  If you have an interest in this time period, we'd recommend this novel.  Her writing is solid and interest doesn't wane throughout the book.  Worth your time if you're a history buff!

RIP: The Thirteenth Tale

Title:  The Thirteenth Tale
Author:  Diane Setterfield
Publisher:  Atria
416 pages
ISBN:  978-0743298020
Source:  Personal Copy
Grade:  B-




A Reader's Respite has been saving this novel by Diane Setterfield for this Halloween season and we weren't disappointed.  A tad creepy, gothic mystery all wrapped up with literary references, it's a good choice for a Halloween read.

Famed and uber-mysterious author Vida Winter is dying.  After years of whimsically making up stories about her virtually unknown past, she's decided to set the record straight and recruits a very reluctant biographer, Margaret Lea, to take down the story.  Margaret begins to uncover all sorts of creepy things in Vida's past and a story within a story soon unfolds.

And what exactly is Vida Winter's story?

Abandoned English estates, obsession, madness, lost fortunes and lost loves is all we're going to tell you. Those who don't take well to wind-swept moors may find the melodrama a bit over the top but if you're a fan of creepy settings this one's for you. While it may not be the best literary fiction to hit the stands in decades, it's certainly a worthwhile get-in-the-mood-for-Halloween story.

Think gothic Rebecca with a bit of Flowers in the Attic creepiness and a dose of Jane Eyre thrown in for good measure and you'll have a pretty good feel for this novel.

 How it fared on A Reader's Respite's CREEP O' METER

What Would Scarlett Do?

A few months back, a new release by Leila Meacham called Roses caught our attention and we rushed to download the book on to the nefarious Amazonian Devil Device.  A Reader's Respite then promptly forgot all about it.  We do this far too frequently these days.  Perhaps it's the booze a degenerative brain disorder caused by mold and dust in old books.  Whatever the cause, the result is dozens and dozens of books purchased and then forgotten about, unread, until we stumble across them months - even years - later and find ourselves scratching our head and wonderding, "Now why the hell did we buy that?"

Anyhoo, we recently stumbled across Meacham's Roses and figured we'd better read it quick before Amazon comes up with some small print that allows them to randomly delete unread books from the Kindle.  (We're pretty sure that's coming, but we'll save our rant for another post.)

The story is one of those big ol' family sagas that cover a few generations of the same families.  Set in Texas (isn't it an obscure literary rule that family sagas MUST take place in Texas?) in the early 1900s, the story follows three families in a small town --- their fortunes, their losses, their loves, their tragedies, two world wars (and one in Korea thrown in for good measure).  You get the picture.  We've heard it compared to The Thorn Birds and Gone With the Wind.

Meacham gets the saga part right, no doubt about it.  Mary Tolliver, Percy Warwick and Ollie DuMont make for a perfect love triangle as the saga plays out....affairs, misunderstandings, untimely deaths.  Meacham writes supremely well and gives us no cause for complaint.

So why didn't we like this novel?

Mary Tolliver.  We hated her.  It's impossible to like a character who makes stupid decisions for stupid reasons.  We wanted to crawl into the pages and slap that woman silly.  And all her descendants, too.  The Tolliver Curse we kept hearing about throughout the book?  We'll tell you what that curse was:  stupidity.

Like Scarlett O'Hara, Mary had a love of the land and her family plantation...a love that eclipsed all common sense and rational thinking.  So why did Mary drive us crazy and Scarlett endear us?  Because Scarlett had a compelling reason - twisted, but compelling - for every action she took.  We understood Scarlett.  We may have been frustrated, but we always understood her.

So what would Scarlett have done in Roses?

She would have dumped the cotton as soon as it was no longer profitable, turned the plantation into a money making machine, shot Percy's dumb-ass wife to get her out of the way, married him and then made his sorry-assed life miserable while she reaped the rewards.  No whining.

Scarlett rocks.

The Red Queen

Title:  The Red Queen

Author:  Philippa Gregory

Genre:  Historical Fiction

400 pages

ISBN:  978-1416563723

Source:  Copy provided by publisher

Grade:  C+

Author Philippa Gregory (The Boleyn Girl, The White Queen) is rapidly becoming the Danielle Steel of historical fiction.  Her latest novel, The Red Queen, revives her same tried and true formula, this time featuring Margaret Beaufort, mother to England's King Henry VII.

Margaret's story picks up during her childhood and, in the now trademark Gregory fashion, follows her life via a first person narrative as Margaret schemes and intrigues her way through the Wars of the Roses.  The major highlights of this turbulent period of British history are all covered here, even if Gregory's historical accuracy misses the mark at times. 

Gregory's formulamatic approach has a distinct positive side to it:  readers know exactly what to expect.  No surprise writing style that disappoints fans of her previous novels.  And truthfully, this is a rather smart move on Gregory's part.  Not only does it keep her fans coming back for more, but it makes for easy-peasy writing.  Just take the same basic outline (her "formula") and fill in the blanks with a different setting and different characters.  When the writing becomes easier, the books start coming off the presses at a faster rate....the publisher makes more money, the author makes more money, and the fans keep flocking in.  What's not to love?

The downside is that writers like Gregory and Steel, while prolific, are never going to win a Pulitzer.  These books don't present any new information or have anything profound at their core.  Readers looking for a unique or controversial take on historical figures need not apply here.

But if it's a Gregory book you're of a mind to read, this one won't disappoint.  The novel was released in the U.S. today and is available in bookstores everywhere.

Book Bundles

A Reader's Respite is always smitten with books that, while not necessarily a series, tend to enhance each other....

Louisa May Alcott's classic novel was first published in two volumes, the first in 1868 and the second, originally titled Good Wives, the following year.  It wasn't until 1880 that both volumes were combined under the title Little Women.

Geraldine Brooks won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize with her parallel novel to Little Women, called March.  The novel follows the absent Mr. March as he struggles to return home from the Civil War to his family.

In April of this year, Kelly O'Connor McNees made her literary debut with The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, a well-received historical fiction novel that imagines Alcott's mysterious love life.


We think this trio is rather cozy, don't you?