Monday, March 13, 2023

Classics Club Spin #33


 

Classics Club Spin #33

I am joining the Classics Club challenge this month to read a book from my list according to the number given to me on Sunday, March 19th. It is titled "33" because it is the 33rd time the club has had this challenge. This will be my very first spin. I am a little nervous about this as I like to have total control over what I feel like reading each day. But I made a goal to read these classics and this will help get me moving. I am already feeling waayyy behind! So wish me luck and I'll post on Sunday which book number I am tasked with reading. Here is my list of twenty random books from my Classics Club page:

1. Anna Karenina

2. Northanger Abbey

3. Jamaica Inn

4. North and South (Gaskell, not Jakes!)

5. The Man in the Brown Suit

6. Strangers On a Train

7. Emma

8. The Age of Innocence

9. 1984

10. Breakfast At Tiffany's

11. The Circular Staircase

12. Devil Water

13. This Side of Glory

14. Waverly

15. The Woman in White

16. Vanity Fair

17. The Talented Mr. Ripley

18. Now, Voyager

19. The Innocence of Father Brown

20. Whose Body?

Wondering what number the spin will land on? Check back on Sunday for my post! I have to read and review that book by Sunday, April 30th. 

Saturday, March 11, 2023

And Only To Deceive by Tasha Alexander (Lady Emily Mysteries Book One)



Publication Date: October 11, 2005

Length: 320 pages

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

This is a long running series with seventeen books. Her new one is set to be published this fall and has yet to even have a description summary yet. I wanted to start with this book because it is the first in the series. Each book features Lady Emily as the main character as she solves a mystery, often in different locations around the world. 

Lady Emily has been recently widowed and hardly knew her husband, the Viscount Phillip of Ashton. She only accepted his proposal in the first place to escape her life with her overbearing mother and had no real connection to Phillip. They weren't together long as he went to Africa on safari and died there. Emily at first revels in her widowhood and new found freedom that was given to her upon his death and inheritance of plenty of wealth to keep her comfortable but soon she begins to read his journals and finds herself falling in love with him. He clearly was in love with her as evidenced in his writings and Emily starts to regret she hadn't known him better or for longer. 

She finds he was also an articulate, well educated, interesting man who through his affiliation with the museum and artifacts fascinate her and she begins to be interested in learning more about Greek history, poetry, and Phillip's association with it all. 

She is faced in her real, everyday life with her dead husband's friend, Colin Hargreaves and is not so smitten at first. She finds herself running into him with great annoyance and their personalities clashing. But this flesh and blood man turns out to be an exciting prospect himself and along with other suitors, she finds her world getting complicated.

The mystery part of the story involves theft and intrigue and throughout Emily is subjected to some harrowing situations. She has to find out who is behind stolen artifacts that connect to Phillip and the British Museum. The answer is both frightening and close to home. She begins to wonder if her adoration of Phillip was misplaced and if she can trust anyone close to her.

This story started out strong. I enjoyed Alexander's writing and it felt like she was giving me a lesson in art, history, and Victorian manners, along with a mystery to solve. It is clear she is knowledgeable in Greek art history and she did a solid job of dialogue and character interaction for the time. Unfortunately, I can only give it three stars because halfway through I really started to lose interest in the mystery part. It felt more like a romance novel with a background puzzle thrown in. I began to feel there wasn't enough mystery there to keep things suspenseful and the villain was just not well hidden to the end. A solid effort to be sure, especially for a first novel, but not a five star book for me.

I am interested in her upcoming book and will probably try it. The plot intrigues me because it is a Lady Emily mystery set in the Scottish Highlands. Hopefully it will be exciting!











 

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish People I'd Like To Meet (My Favorite Authors List)




This week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, is to list something related to "Bookish People I'd Like To Meet." Of course there are a million fictional possibilities but I thought I'd list my favorite authors (those living!) that I'd love to meet if I could. What authors would you like to meet if you had the chance?

1. Anne Perry- The queen of historical mysteries set in the Victorian Era.

2. Diana Gabaldon- My favorite time travel author.

3. Ben Kane- Great author of historical fiction set in Ancient Rome, Medieval England, and now the Napoleonic Era with his upcoming novel.

4. Verity Bright- This is actually a husband and wife couple who write the cute Eleanor Swift mysteries

5. Janette Oak- Much loved writer of Christian fiction. She has written a huge, inspirational volume of stories.

6. John Jakes- My go to author for Civil War and founding of America fiction series. 

7. Michael Phillips- His Christian Stonewycke series really influenced me as a teen. Wonderful stories I'd like to read again someday.

8. Martha Keyes- New author writing fun, wholesome Regency romances and Scottish highlands sagas.

9. Alison Weir- Fabulous non-fiction writer whose brain I'd love to pick about how to research material. She is amazing with all the tidbits she finds.

10. Dan Jones- My other favorite non-fiction author who I've listened to on a podcast and found he had some great stories and insights to go along with his research.









 

 

Friday, March 3, 2023

Queens of the Crusades: England's Medieval Queens Book Two by Alison Weir



Publication Date:  February 23, 2021

Length:  560 pages

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

This book is part two of a three part series on Medieval Queens. Book one deals with the conquest period and book three covers the age of chivalry. I already had purchased this one awhile ago when it was on sale and so that is why I started in the middle. Also, loving the Crusader period, I wanted to learn more about the wives of the Kings involved during this time. Alison Weir is known for being a solid researcher and her books cover her chosen subjects with depth and fidelity so I know I'm getting the facts, not embellished with her opinions. 

There are five sections: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Berengaria of Navarre, Isabella of Angouleme, Alienor of Provence, and Eleanor of Castile. Each queen either participated in the Crusades and, or, was Queen during the period of the Crusades. Some had husbands who joined the march to the Holy Land themselves but not all. Of course the most famous of them, Eleanor of Aquitaine, receives the most thorough treatment here but that is common when she is in the mix. I didn't mind because even though I know a lot about her life, there is always some new interesting fact I've not heard before.

The first section on Eleanor of Aquitaine picks up shortly after her meeting of Henry Plantagenet and continues into the next two sections on Berengaria and Isabella. Eleanor's long life meant that she was privy to the lives and marriages of these queens of her sons, Richard and John, and was heavily involved in the politics of the day right up until her last years. It is clear that Weir wants readers to hone in on just how influential she was after her release from captivity with her husband Henry's death and Richard's ascension. The tone of the book suggests just how impressive Eleanor was in her ability to rule when given the opportunity. 

When moving from Eleanor to the next three Queens, Weir concentrates more on their husbands. It is clear that there is just not much information on Berengaria, Isabella, or Alienor (Richard I, John, and Henry III's wives) because there was very scant attention to their upbringing and most of the sections focused on minor details such as their charities, religious leanings, and child bearing. I found that I learned much more about the governance of each King and how it affected the country than I did about their spouses but there was still an overall picture of the personalities of each woman: Berengaria presents as a kind, well loved but often neglected lady, Isabella a young naive girl who moved to a more selfish, scheming person in her second marriage to Hugh de Lusignan, and Alienor a devoted mother but often scorned by the country she ruled due to her Savoy relatives.

Eleanor of Castile was given the last section of twelve chapters, almost as much as the first Eleanor, which initially was a surprise. Not knowing much about her I assumed there would not be much more to cover about her than the three previous queens. Accompanying her husband Edward I on the crusades, Eleanor was a formidable woman who was well educated and clearly loved by her devoted spouse. She produced many royal offspring and was beloved by Edward long after her death. 

I enjoyed this book and although there were chapters I skimmed through if they focused heavily on details that didn't interest me, overall there was sold, unique information on each queen that I hadn't heard before. I often felt that Weir had little to go on for some of these women and had to stretch some related facts to the point of redundancy and tedium. Unfortunately, for the time this is too common and she had to use what she had and link it to their husbands lives in order to paint a thorough portrait. I plan to eventually read the other two books in the series and they are a great way to get a snapshot of these often forgotten queens of the middle ages. 










 

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Genre Freebie- Historical Fiction Eras I've Never Read About


 

For this week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, the topic was a "genre freebie." So of course I have to post about my favorite genre: historical fiction. It's a very busy time right now....school, baseball, band, etc....so this week I needed to be short and sweet as I'm low on time! But I wanted to post on this topic because I just know my fellow bloggers will jump in and make it fun by giving me the books they've read set in these eras to broaden my reading. So here are the time periods I have never, ever read about in fiction. Give me all the books you recommend!

1. Pre-1066 Norman Invasion- I have not read anything prior to the conquest of England by William the Conqueror. It is not an era that appeals to me...the whole "Last Kingdom" time. I'm sure there are some great books about it though. Circa....600-1000 Britain.

2. Ancient Greece- Maybe I've never looked hard enough but there seems to be a shortage of good historical fiction for this time period. Or maybe it's because it's all battles and blood and not so much people. But surely I'm missing something!

3. Napoleonic Wars- On my Classics Club list I have a goal to read War and Peace but haven't been able to find a lot from this time period that interests me yet. 

4. Ancient Egypt- The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George is the only book coming to mind that I've considered reading from this era. 

5. Irish Republican Army conflict- I am sure there are some fabulous books about this topic/era that I'm missing. 

6. Korean War- There is not a single book that springs to mind about this time period. It's often forgotten in the world of novels. 

7. Scotland prior to 1300's- Pre- Robert the Bruce time period I haven't seen much but there are probably some books there.

8. The Roaring Twenties- Now full disclaimer....I have read The Great Gatsby which would technically fall during this time period. But other than that one, I can't recall another historical fiction book in this category. 

9. 1400-1600's Italy- I know there are some great books about this period. Jean Plaidy has a series of novels about the DeMedici family and I'm sure there are lots more but I haven't tackled this era yet.

10. Pre- Crusdades Middle East- Wow...now this would be a great era to know more about through fiction. I would love to know more about the stories of those living there prior to 1100 when their world changed with the coming of the Franks.