Picky eaters!

Ok....I've heard that Mrs Seinfeld has written a book about trying to get children that are very picky with their food, to eat veggies and fruit by hidding it in foods that are tempting to them. My 3 year old is very picky and I found this contest to win a copy of the book, so I am linking to the contest here.

http://shawnsbidness.com/blog/2008/08/18/giveaway-deceptively-delicious-book/

Wish me luck...both with getting a copy of the book, and with winning over my son to eat!

The Lace Reader

The art of lace making is so much more than a craft in the Salem area. There are women that can "read" lace, and see a story in the pattern of lace that a person chooses. Long associated with witchcraft, Salem is the setting for this new contemporary book (I know, it is a departure from my usual reading, in that it is not historical fiction, but it does have a small historical connection), from the debut author Brunonia Barry. Towner Whitney is the central figure of the story, and she returns to Salem when her elderly great-aunt goes missing. She hasn't been to her hometown for many years, including a stint in a mental institution in the intervening years. A young girl goes missing. She has been mixed up in a local religious cult, but how is it related to Towner and her life? The cult brings in themes of persecution, like the witches of historical Salem, and we also see the bond of sisters, between Towner and her sister Lyndley, and between their mother and aunt, and the effect of mental illness. We also see how things are not quite as they seem.....and the truth is delivered with a twist, which while it may not be suprising, is surely captivating.

Thanks to HarperCollins, and their FirstLook Program for the ARC of this book.

Queen's Play

It looks like I need to do a bit of catching up with my book reviews! And it seems as though historicalfiction.org is down at the moment! OH NO! I'm not quite sure what to do with myself without checking it every few minutes just to make sure!

The name "Dorothy Dunnett" is synonymous with literary historical fiction. And while this was only my second dip into her work, I already greatly appreciate her craft. Queen's Play is the second in the Lymond Chronicles, and takes the legendary Francis Crawford to France to the court of Henri II, were there is reason to believe that the life of the little Queen, Mary Queen of Scots, is in danger. Lymond is a complex character, and is so much like a James Bond of the 16thC, that I have to wonder if he could play some of the well known James Bond theme song on his lute! He is a master of intrigue, with all the tools to inch his way out of the diciest situations, with his great gifts of disguise, the art of reading people, and a bit of an action man to boot.
Dunnett brings in another worthy figure, the O'LiamRoe, Prince of Barrow, Lord of the Slieve Bloom (I hope I have that right), who is a great addition to the story, with his links to Ireland, and his visit to the court of France, causes a bit of a giggle.
I am looking forward to continuing with the Lymond Chronicles, and getting onto the House of Niccolo too!

The Dark Moutain

"The Dark Mountain" by Catherine Jinks, is a departure from my recent reading. It is historical fiction set in Australia, in the Southern Highlands south of Sydney, in the mid 1800s. Charlotte Atkinson and her family show some of the difficulties of the expectations of society on colonial life. The central characters, and the main features of the story are based on fact. Charlotte's widowed mother remarries, and the new stepfather is a man who is an alcoholic, probably leading on to mental instabilities, who was previously the overseer of the estate. His actions lead to the ruin of the family estate, and lead Charlotte's mother taking the children to Sydney in a bid to be rid of him. But he continues to cast a dark cloud over their lives for many years to come.

The central themes of this book, are the division of the classes, based on background (breeding), wealth, and religion, that actions and words have consequences, and the mother and daughter relationship. It gives a glimes of the culture of colonial Australia, especially the portion of the book set in Sydney, where the family attend events such as cricket matches, fine works displays, regattas, lectures and day trips to Bondi Beach (not the easy trip it is today!). The story begins to be told by Charlotte in her later life, as she looks back to the past, to tell her family about the story of her childhood. Interlude chapters are interspersed where she comes back to the present to give an explanation of something as she sees it from currently, rather than as it happened, and we get to know some of how Charlottes life came to be so different from the path it started out on.

Thanks to Allen & Unwin, for the chance to read this new release.

The Good Earth

I took a break from Western Civilization, to read "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck. I knew that it was considered to be a classic, but I didn't realise that it was written in the early 1930's. I thought more the 50s and 60s. Reading it though, the language is beautiful, and not dated the way some books are. In fact, she really did try to make the dialogue sound believable. There are many contrasts to be remarked upon in the coarse of the novel; there is the lot of man and woman, rich and poor, famine and feast, drought and flood, and how each is interconnected. It shows a family dynamic that is quite different to today's family structure, with extra wives, a deep respect for the older generation, with not just the main character, Wang Lung's, father residing with him and being cared for in his old age, but the father's uncle's family as well. O-Lan is the wife of Wang Lung, and a more suffering, loyal woman you could not meet. She births her children amid the ploughing, sowing and harvesting of farm life, she struggles to feed the family through famine, and is uncomplaining when her loyalty is repaid with the addition of a second wife. Lotus is a stark contrast to O-Lan, and is not a likable character at all! Wang Lung establishes himself as a respected member of his village, then moves into town, where his sons are embarking on a life much different to his.
This is the first in a trilogy, and I will be looking to add "Sons" and "A House Divided" to round of the story.

Farewell, My Queen

And so I moved on to another "Last Queen", in this case the last queen of France, Marie Antoinette. Though more to the point, this book Farewell, My Queen by Chantal Thomas, doesn't really rotate around Marie Antoinette as a central figure. The real Queen of this piece is Versailles. The palace, the courtiers, the rituals. The story is told diary style over a three day period from the fall of the Bastille. The narrator is the deputy reader to Marie Antoinette, who left Versailles and resided in Vienna. The author Chantal Thomas, is also the author of a non-fiction work on Marie Antoinette, "The Wicked Queen", which comes highly recommended from readers more "in the know" than me, and I think that this shows itself in the details in "Farewell, My Queen". She clearly has done a lot of research into the way of life in the palace of Versailles and I was intrigued by what I learnt. Sure it was (is) a sumptuous palace, but it was certainly had its problems! Rats and other vermin, swampy stinky smells on hot summers days, and a courtly ritual that meant that the King and Queen ate their meals cold, are just some of the gems in this book. But aside from that, it also tells of the panic that enveloped the nobles and courtiers in the palace, with the swirling rumours afoot of mobs of Revolutionary peasants ready to attack their way of life and their very bodies as well. There was so much uncertainty on how to behave. The King and Queen even disagreeing on whether to escape the palace, they stayed and the world knows the outcome of that one. Some nobles even refrained from fleeing, as they could not get together the accouterments to journey forth in the style that they deemed fitting for their rank! Oh how the hierarchy got a shake up with the Revolution!

The Last Queen

The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner opens with and aged and imprisoned Juana of Castile, recounting her life. I have been interested in the story of Juana for some time after first reading about her in passing as a sister of Katherine of Aragon. It always seemed like an interesting story, or a supposedly insane queen carting around the remains of her dead husband and being imprisoned for man, many years. And that this should happen to the daughter of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, the sister of a queen of England and the mother of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, still seems astounding.
As much as her mother might of tried to prevent it, Juana ended up as a pawn in the political games of men. Her husband, her father and ultimately her son, betrayed her due to unrifled ambition, with the lure being the kingdom of Castile. From the small snipets I had previously read of Juana, I had accepted the story of the insane queen. But having read more about this period of time, it seems as though it was really an age of propaganda, and now having read Gortner's book, I will certainly question more about the historical character's I read about.
Juana has for so long in the English language, been a figure of passing mention. It is eye opening to read about her as a central figure. Here she is a red blooded passionate Spaniard sent of to Flanders to marry the heir to the Hapsburg empire, Philip the Handsome. She sets off with trepidation, her only solace being that she is serving the interests of Spain. But she falls crashingly in love with her husband from the first moments. They are happy for a time.....untill Juana becomes heir to the throne of Castile, and Philip's ambitions, and lust for the crown surpass his love and respect for his wife. He turns from the glowing centre of her world, to a scheming, dark, manipulating man desperate to clutch the crown at all costs. And he has a veritable bevy of syncophants around him to help him reach his lofty goals as well. And the father that she so adored as a child, turns into much the same.
Gortner tells Juana's story with a great deal of compassion. And we are left wondering how a woman could be so badly treated by her husband, and father, and then left to dwell in prisoned in a castle by her son.
The Last Queen is being re-issued soon, and for those people that have an interest in the Tudor time period, it is a fantastic read, showing Spain and the European stage at the time, and developing more interest in characters that are afforded just short mentions in the stories of the Tudor court. It is interesting to put her timeline in perspective with the goings on in England, which I am much more aware of. She was born in 1479, so during the reign of Edward IV, and died after 46 years in prison in 1555, during the reign of her niece Mary I.
I will definately be seeking out more about the sad story of Juana, and have another Gortner book, The Secret Lion, waiting to be read. He also has a book in the works about Catherine de Medici, another of my favourites!