Deception by Michael Meehan

Deception means a number of things in this book. It is a physical place in the Australian outback, and it also refers to the threads of deception, which are unwound in an endeavor to uncover the truth. These threads are tethered with events of violence and uprising in the city of Paris - The Paris of the Commune in 1871, and the present time student riots in 1968. Nick is fascinated with the little that he knows of his grandmother's childhood. A family home deserted, a split in the family, and a mysterious, eccentric French writer. It is a story that shines with outcasts from society - those that have been outcast, and those that have shut themselves away. Nick travels to Paris, with a stash of rambling writings left by the Frenchman, and kept by his grandmother, hoping to shed light on some of the gaps in his family's history.
It is a well structured book, which encourages you to look at things with a different light, and keep an open mind about things until the truth is told. If you approach things with preconceived ideas, you will only deceive yourself.

Thank you to Allen & Unwin, for the chance to review this book.

Ancient Egypt is calling me.....

The lovely ladies at Historical Tapestry are hosting a Michelle Moran Week!

Her second novel The Heretic Queen is due for release shortly, and her first work Nefertiti has come highly recommended from many people whose reviews I respect. As yet I have not read Nefertiti, but I am pretty keen to delve into Michelle's Ancient Egypt. The only other time I have read historical fiction about Ancient Egypt was reading the first of the Ramses novels by Christian Jacq. I found that a bit tedious, as it was translated from French and not very well either, some of the grammer was terrible! As Michelle's books have been read and reviewed by many of the people of excellent taste in books on the historicalfictiononline.com forum, I feel as though I should give Ancient Egypt another shot with this guaranteed good read!

Here is the link to the announcement of Michelle Moran Week and another book giveaway:

http://historicaltapestry.blogspot.com/2008/09/announcement-michelle-moran-week.html

And another....this time it Nefertiti and The Heretic Queen

Books 'N Border Collies are having a book giveaway at the moment. The first prize is a signed copy of The Heretic Queen and Nefertiti (well Nefertiti is a signed bookplate but that is splitting hairs really). Here is the link:

http://booksnbordercollies.blogspot.com/2008/08/michelle-moran-book-giveaway.html

Linking to another book giveaway!

Carp(e) libris ahave a book giveaway running at the moment that sounds really interesting:

http://carpelibrisreviews.com/sweet-mandarin-by-helen-tse-book-giveaway/

Family history, strong women, Chinese culture: sounds like a great book!