A Book Coma

A Reader's Respite hasn't offered up a book review in well over a week.  Apparently, we fell into a coma whilst reading this book:

How is it possible for such a well-written book to be this incredibly....uh....well, boring?  After all, it started off with such a promising premise:

In Renaissance Italy in the 17th century, dowries for young ladies had become so exorbitant that many wealthy families could only afford to marry off one daughter.  This meant that any remaining daughters were frequently sent to a convent, whether they liked the idea or not.

Sacred Hearts is about one such girl, brought kicking and screaming into the Santa Caterina convent and leaving her true love behind.  The first 100 or so pages enthralled us:  we loved the descriptions of convent life and Serafina's plight was oh-so-compelling.

And then......

nothing.

Nada.  Zip.  Not a damned thing really happened for the next 350 pages.  Hence, our coma.

We're still baffled by it all.  Dunant is a superb writer....her sentences are well structured, her syntax perfect, her dialog flows.  But nothing really happened and even the best of writers can't make Nothing interesting.  (This is starting to feel like a Seinfeld review....it's a book about nothing.)

About the only useful information we retrieved from the novel was a scene where poor Serafina was starving herself in protest:

She carries the hunger with her every moment of the day.  When she is praying she prays to withstand it, and when it is as its most acute, it moves her toward prayer.  The only time she does not feel it is when she is asleep.  And yet - and here is the strangest thing - she is not in anguish over it.  Instead, this concentration, this absorption in the act of not eating, is so strong that it has begun to wipe out all other feelings and thoughts that might pursue her.

A Reader's Respite will be keeping this little passage in mind for our next attempt at a diet.

*****

FTC Disclosure:  Random House sent me this book some time ago and it then lingered on our shelves for months, just waiting for the proper time to jump out and induce a coma.

*****

Now you all know that A Reader's Respite firmly believes that there is a butt for every saddle.  Just because we slipped into a coma doesn't mean you will!  So if you thing you could do better justice to this novel than we did, please leave a comment and on February 10th we'll draw a random winner.

Audiobook Redemption

After our last audiobook disaster, we were a tad leery of starting another one. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice....well, you get the drift.

So for a change of pace A Reader's Respite went a-huntin' for a good piece of fiction on audio. With only a slight hesitation (picture our finger hovering uncertainly over the "click to purchase" button on Audible), we bravely downloaded The Book of Unholy Mischief, by Elle Newmark, narrated by Raul Esparza.

We've had our eye on this one for quite some time. Not sure if any of you out there remember this, but Newmark's book, after failing to find an interested publisher, was originally self-published in 2007 under the title of Bones of the Dead.

Now if you review books on a regular basis, A Reader's Respite is pretty confident that you've read your fair share of self-published novels. 99% of the time there is *ahem* a reason they are self-published and not put forth by a publishing house. Suffice it to say that those publishers know their stuff and if they don't think a book will find an audience, they are usually right.

Every once in a while, however, one slips through the cracks and Newmark's novel was the exception to the rule. Through sheer tenacity, talent and audacity, she managed to get the attention this novel so richly deserved.....and a seven-figure deal from Atria in the process.

Suffice it to say, this book is FABULOUS! How on earth did it get ignored by publishers the first time around?

The year is 1498 and the place is Venice. The Renaissance is about to dawn and a young street urchin named Luciano is taken in as an apprentice to a master chef. The chef, however, is not what he seems. Outwardly an esteemed employee of the doge of Venice (think: governor), the chef eventually reveals himself to be one of the Guardians, a keeper of ancient wisdom passed down secretly through the ages. Wisdom, it should be noted, that the powerful Pope in Rome -- Rodrigo Borgia, aka Pope Alexander VI -- would rather keep hidden from the masses.

Borgia perfecting his evil little look of corruption

The mere possession of this knowledge is a very dangerous preposition indeed. Especially once the doge and the Pope become aware of it's existence and begin the deadly hunt for it's acquisition.

Narrator Raul Esparza (you sexy thing, Raul!) more than does this riveting story justice....his accents and voices are absolutely spellbinding. Truly, A Reader's Respite would have been very happy indeed had the story gone on forever.

Now if you want to get technical about the historical aspects of the novel, you'll find a few tidbits out of historical place and time. Easily forgiven, in our opinion.

So if you haven't taken a gander at this novel, consider the audio format. You won't be disappointed!




Obligatory FCC Disclosure: this audiobook was bought and paid for with our very own blood, sweat, and tears. Okay, so maybe not our blood. But definitely sweat and the occassional tears. Hey, who said earning a paycheck was easy?