Book Review: Belle Cora by Phillip Marguiles

This was a really good book. Excellent historical fiction.

I love it when a book is well-written, the characters are complex and feel real, AND I learn something about a place and time that I previously had little familiarity with. I picked this book up from the new fiction shelves at the library based on the cover blurb. Over half of the books that I find this way end up going back unread.

I started this one with hope, but much trepidation due to the nature of the main character, a famous San Francisco madam. I was very quickly sucked in by the story and the writing. The writing in this book stays out of the way. First-person narratives often feel forced, but this never did. Written in the form of a memoir by the elderly main character, looking back over her life, the writing carried the story beautifully. As I was reading it, I kept thinking, "Unless something changes, this is a five-star book." Nothing changed. Five stars.

Book Review: Embers by Sandor Marai

What makes one book better than another? What makes you finish a book feeling satisfied, glad that you have read it?

Whatever those are, Embers has them. From the publisher's description:

 In a secluded woodland castle an old General prepares to receive a rare visitor, a man who was once his closest friend but who he has not seen in forty-one years. Over the ensuing hours host and guest will fight a duel of words and silences, accusations and evasions. They will exhume the memory of their friendship and that of the General’s beautiful, long-dead wife. 

I read a couple of reviews that complained that nothing happens in this book. This is almost true, however, at the same time, so much has already happened. We get the story in layers. Thin piece by thin piece pulling away, revealing what lies underneath.

The writing is simple and beautiful. I will certainly look for other works by Marai. This book has also made me determined to seek out more works by other European authors.

I gave this book four stars. I'm not sure why I didn't give it five, but I went with what my gut said when I finished it. I wish I could give half stars. Wait! I can! Not on Goodreads, but here on my own blog, I can give half stars. Four and a half stars.

And now a note about some books I won't be reviewing

I am not going to review every book I read. Or rather, some books, for one reason or another, are going to get the one or two sentence review. (Just a reminder of what my stars mean.)

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis: It's Narnia. What is there to say? I enjoyed it. Four stars.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger: It's Catcher in the Rye. I very seriously doubt that I could come up with anything to say about it that hasn't been said a hundred times before. Four stars.

Portrait in Death by J.D. Robb: Formulaic, futuristic police fiction. But a fun read now and again. This story was one of the better ones. Four stars.

Book Review: The Monster of Florence

I have had this book on my shelf and in my TBR pile for a couple of years. I was drawn to it because the author, Douglas Preston, is part of my favorite writing duo, teaming up with Lincoln Child to write a series of excellent books, mostly featuring FBI agent Pendergast, as well as several other thrillers.

 I'm glad that I finally pulled it off the shelf.

In 2000, Preston moved with his family to Italy to write. He quickly became interested in the story of a serial killer  known as The Monster of Florence. The first, more historical part of the book about the killings and the initial investigations into the murders was fascinating. The crimes were laid out. Suspects were introduced. Investigations were undertaken.

The second part, focusing more on the workings--or lack thereof--of the Italian justice system was infuriating and rather tedious. I'm sure that, as it was going on and Preston was in fear of being imprisoned in Italy, it was far from tedious, but that part of the book got long.

It was an interesting read. Not bad. Just not as good as his fiction. Three stars.

Adding a late challenge

I noticed a hole in my challenges today. I love historical fiction, but I know that if I don't have a challenge for reading it, I may not read much this year. And I need to read it. So I went searching and found a challenge that I didn't run across back in December.

The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge .

UPDATE: Upping the level to Renaissance Reader, which is 10 books.
I think that I am going for the Victorian Reader level, which is five books, but I may up that. We shall see.

I will list the books here as I read them.

1. Embers by Sandor Marai (1/28/2014)
2 Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (2/7/2014)
3. Belle Cora by Phillip Marguiles (2/11/2014)
4. Somewhere in France by Jennifer Robson (marginal) (3/ 9/2014)
5. The Ghost of the Mary Celeste by Valerie Martin (3/29/2014)
6. Nefertiti by Michelle Moran (4/7/2014)
7. My Name is Resolute by Nancy E. Turner (5/19/2014)
8. Luvvy and the Girls by Natalie Savage Carlson (6/12/2014)
9. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (10/27/2014)
10. Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (11/13/2014)

Book Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

I decided that I had better do some reviews before I forget what I read.

Allegiant was the third book in a teen dystopian trilogy. The first book was really good. It made me look forward to the second. The second was okay; I still planned to read the third, but not with as much excitement.

The third redeemed the second.

I am having trouble writing a review for this without just parroting what my friend Scott said about it on Goodreads, because he was really right on.  In fact, using the fact that I recently had dental surgery--and houseguests for five straight days--and I still do not totally have my wits about me, I am going to quote Scott:

Written in alternating perspective between Tris and Tobias, the characters deal not only with the groups of people and their city and all the dynamics therein (and out!), but also with profound personal and social matters.

Philosophical and existential issues are wrestled with in the thoughts of the characters. Things like religion sparked by viewing creation, the impact of things like nature and nurture and personal choices in the development of people, racism in the metaphor of "genetic purity," the plans and schemes of governments and those who would govern, evil, freedom, and many other things. --Scott Schreiber

 I really liked the way the characters came up against the fact that humans are born with the capacity for evil. Original sin, while not named as such, was grappled with in the realization that characters just aren't all good or all bad. This book was far more nuanced than most teen fiction is.

And, of course, I always love a nice cheery dystopia. Four stars.

Book Review: Murder on Monday by Ann Purser

You know how it is when you finish a book one day and you don't remember all that much about it the next? Yeah. That.

This book is a mystery of the cozy variety, set in an English village, with an amateur sleuth. (This one is a cleaning lady for several houses in the village.) There were a number of things that kept this book from being an intro to a new repeat-read author for me. The story was very slow. It seemed like the book could easily have been about 2/3 the length that it was. There were lots of not-all-that-likeable characters. And unfortunately, the protagonist was chief among them. (She had a bad attitude and was, arguably, not a great parent.)

I sensed the solution about halfway through the book, but felt like the windup was almost too fast, especially given the slowness of the rest of the book.

The book wasn't awful. The writing was fine. It just wasn't my cup of tea.
Three stars.