Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2013

Okay, I just couldn't resist. I have been reading so many historical fiction novels lately that it seems silly not to sign up for this challenge too. This challenge is hosted by Historical Tapestry and you can find all the details here. Thanks to Historical Tapestry, I found several upcoming books to add to my TBR list. You should check out their post on 2013's Most Anticipated New Releases.

Updated: Historical Fiction reviews posted
1. The House of Velvet and Glass
2. A Thing Done
3. Thwarted Queen
4. The Waste Land
5. The Bruges Tapestry
6. Rocamora
7. The Chalice
8. The Fifth Knight
9. The Queen's Vow
10. Gracianna
11. The Queen's Rivals
12. Colossus: The Four Emperors
13. Queen's Gambit
14. The Tudor Conspiracy

Final update for 2013: I am sure there are a few more historical fiction books that I never posted to the challenge page, so I will grant myself one more to make the Medieval Reader level for 2013. I will strive to better at updating for 2014.

Dystopia Reading Challenge 2013

Okay, one more challenge. No, really, just one more. I absolutely love dystopian fiction and any excuse to read more is great as far as I'm concerned. This challenge is hosted by Blog of Erised and you can find all the details here.

Books read:
1. Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky
2. Delirium by Lauren Oliver

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2013

Yes, I'm going to attempt this massive challenge hosted by Book Chick City. I probably won't review all the books I read, but I will try to review most of them.  You can find details here if you are interested in this challenge too.

The Lady and Her Monsters

The Lady and Her Monsters by Roseanne Montillo
review copy provided by William Morrow
Description from Goodreads:
The macabre meets art in this startling blend of grotesque nineteenth-century science and fascinating literary creation that examines the actual Victor Frankenstein's and the real-life horrors behind Mary Shelley's gothic masterpiece, Frankenstein

A highly entertaining blend of literary analysis, lore, and scientific history, told with the verve and ghoulish fun of a Tim Burton film, The Lady and Her Monsters traces the origins of the greatest horror story of all time-Mary Shelley's Frankenstein-using the novel as a centerpiece from which to explore the frightful milieu in which it was written. Roseanne Montillo recounts how Shelley's Victor Frankenstein mirrored actual scientists of the period-curious and daring iconoclasts, influenced by their predecessors in the scientific age, who were obsessed with the inner workings of the human body and how it could be reanimated after death.

Montillo reveals how Shelley and her contemporaries were products of their time-intellectually curious artists, writers, poets, philosophers, and others intrigued by the occultists and daring scientists appearing across Europe who risked their reputations and their immortal souls to advance our understanding of human anatomy and medicine. But their remarkable experiments could not be undertaken without the cutthroat grave robbers who prowled cemeteries for fresh corpses. The newly dead were used for both private and very public autopsies and dissections, as well as the most daring trials of all: attempts at human reanimation involving electricity-experiments eagerly attended by the likes of Shelley and other onlookers compelled by the bloody and grotesque.

Juxtaposing the monstrous mechanization and exploitation of rising industrialism with the sublime beauty and decadence of Romanticism embodied in the legendary artists who defined the age, Montillo takes us into a world where poets become legends in salons and boudoirs; where fame-hungry "doctors" conduct shocking performances for rabid, wide-eyed audiences; where maniacal body snatchers secretly toil in castle dungeons. The result is a unique, rich, and revealing look into the creation of a classic.

My Take:
I have been interested in the Romantics since college. I took a wonderful class on the later romantics and I just loved it. I was particularly interested in Byron and Mary Shelley. This book filled a gap in information for me.  I was aware in a general way of many of the people and issues discussed in The Lady and Her Monsters, but this book really went into depth and gave some very good background information for better understanding Mary Shelley.

I found the parts relating to her father and her family to be very interesting and helpful in gaining some insight into her life. There will always be controversy surrounding these people - they lived an unusual life and had a different view of many things. I think that for the most part, this book handles the lives it chronicles very well. I would have liked to have seen a bit more attention paid to the effects of Percy's behavior and attitudes toward Mary examined a bit more, but I thought many important issues were addressed. Now, to be honest, I have never like Percy Shelley as a person (though I cannot deny he was a great poet) -- he always seemed like a jerk and too self righteous. I find this a bit stupid considering he persuaded a young girl to run off with him and left his wife and child to do so. This being the case, it would take quite a bit to change my mind about him. I thought that Montillo did a good  job of being fair regarding the different people in the book -- Mary, Percy, Byron, Claire, etc. I mean, this is the stuff of movies and soap operas.

This is one non-fiction book that reads pretty much like fiction. Of course, you can't really do any better than Lord Byron and Percy Shelley for scandal, gossip, outrageous lifestyles, etc.

I was also quite impressed with the research into the scientists, criminals, students, and various other people involved in the trade in corpses. This is an unsavory topic and is gruesome without even trying. This is where the real gap in information was for me - I knew in a vague way these experiments were going on, but The Lady and Her Monsters really explains how this area of study and experimentation changed things and how it could have influenced Mary Shelley.

The Lady and Her Monsters will appeal to both history buffs and literature fans. I was entertained and educated at the same time - and you can't go wrong with that combo.

Guest Post by Tony Viardo, CEO of the publisher Astor + Blue Editions

Kindle   B&N  kobo sony

Awhile back I posted an excerpt from Extraordinary Rendition by Paul Batista. The publisher of that book and many other wonderful books is Astor + Blue. Right now, Astor + Blue is having a Holiday Season Price Promo for Extraordinary Rendition for only $1.99. In fact, Astor +Blue Editions has put its entire first season’s list of e-book titles on a holiday promotional sale for $0.99 or $1.99. The sale will continue through January 7, 2013. This is a great deal and if the excerpt from Extraordinary Rendition peaked your interest, now is a great time to get it. Who doesn't like a holiday sale? Their whole can be found here: http://astorandblue.com/catalog/.

As a bonus treat, here is a guest post by the CEO of Astor + Blue, Tony Viardo. Enjoy.

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Digital Publishing: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas?

So how many articles have we read about E-books and Digital Publishing this year? For anyone who generally follows the book world (rabid booklover, book-blogger, industry pro or casual reader), we’re literally inundated with the amazing numbers—“E-book sales up 125% (again) over the 175% they were up from last year’s 225% increase!”—and equally amazing technological announcements—“Next Fall, the new ZimWittyZoomDitty tablet not only updates your Facebook and Goodreads friends whenever you snort in disgust … it cooks dinner for you at the same time!”

This leads many to take at least casual stock of what’s going on/going to happen to the “Publishing World” as we know it.  And if your friends are like my friends (hardcore print book consumers), that stock is usually pretty morbid (sharp Greenwich Village angst not included): “Print books are doomed, so are brick-and-mortar stores.  Goodbye literary quality. Oh and some pajama-wearing techie living in a basement with a laptop is going to be the new Sulzburger; we’ll all have to bow down!”

If you (or that good friend of yours) fall into the mortified category, my take (for what it’s worth) may come as positive news:  E-books are not, and will not be, the Grinch Who Stole Christmas; in this case, the “Print World’s” bacon. Now, as the owner of a “Digital First” publishing house (Astor + Blue Editions, www.astorandblue.com) my opinions may easily be written off as self-serving and invalid.  But bear with me for a minute… these are fact-based observations and I might just make sense (Someone tell my mom and dad).

As someone who earns a living from publishing, I have to follow numbers and industry trends as closely as possible.  And while some see doom and gloom for Print, I see exciting developments for both Print and E-book formats.  What do the numbers show?  Digital book revenue is skyrocketing, print revenue is declining.  Natural conclusion?  E-books are killing print books. But not so fast.  Historically, Print revenue has always seemed to be declining (even before E-books were invented), but that doesn’t mean the book market is dying or shrinking.

We have to remember that in fact the book market is growing. Readership always grows because population always grows.  Every year, new readers enter the vast pool of the club that is “adult readership,” (despite Dancing with the Stars). And every year more readers are being born and theoretically being inspired by Ms. Crabtree’s elementary reading class.  **So why the decline?  Readership grows gradually, but the sheer number of books and book vendors grow exponentially, showing an investment loss almost every year. (Basic statistics: the widening universe makes it look like a shrinking pie when it isn’t).

So what does this mean?  If you look at the numbers (historically), revenue for print books may have declined, yes, but not more than “normal,” and not significantly more than it did when there were no E-books around. (This is arguable of course, but the long term numbers do not show a precipitous drop-off). The yearly revenue decline, if there is one, can just as easily be written off to economic conditions as to E-book competition.  Bottom line:  Any drop in print revenue that may be caused by E-books are not significantly sharp enough to declare that E-books are destroying print book sales.  (Hence no Grinch).

What may be happening, and what I believe is happening is that a whole new market for E-books is developing, while the print book market growth, like Publishing as a whole, is still growing at a historically gradual pace. (Boringly flat).  Come up with your pet anecdote here, but I believe that more new readers are entering the market (who otherwise wouldn’t have) because of E-readers; existing readers are consuming more books (both print and e-book) than they did before; and while it would seem that a certain print title is losing a sale whenever readers buy it in E-book format, this is offset, at least somewhat, by the fact that more print titles are being bought (that otherwise wouldn’t) because of the extra marketing buzz and added awareness produced by the E-book’s cyber presence.  All of it evens out in the end, and I believe, ultimately fosters growth industry-wide.

So take heart Print fans, E-books are not the dark villain you think they are.  And here, I should correct my earlier analogy—that E-books are not the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.  They may actually be the Grinch…in as much as, at the end of the story, the pear-shaped green guy ended up not only giving all the presents back to the singing Who-villers, he created a flash mob and started a big party as well.

Moranthology

Moranthology by Caitlin Moran
review copy provided by Harper Perennial
Description from Goodreads:
MORANTHOLOGY The very best of Caitlin Moran – in the first ever collection of her writing

‘In HOW TO BE A WOMAN, I was limited to a single topic: women. Their hair, their shoes and their crushes on Aslan from The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe (which I KNOW to be universal).

‘However! In my new book MORANTHOLOGY – as the title suggests – I am set free to tackle THE REST OF THE WORLD: Ghostbusters, Twitter, caffeine, panic attacks, Michael Jackson’s memorial service, being a middle-class marijuana addict, Doctor Who, binge-drinking, Downton Abbey, pandas, my own tragically early death, and my repeated failure to get anyone to adopt the nickname I have chosen for myself: ‘Puffin’.

‘I go to a sex-club with Lady Gaga, cry on Paul McCartney’s guitar, get drunk with Kylie, appear on Richard & Judy as a gnome, climb into the TARDIS, sniff Sherlock Holmes’s pillows at 221b Baker Street, write Amy Winehouse’s obituary, turn up late to Downing Street for Gordon Brown, and am rudely snubbed at a garden party by David Cameron –although that’s probably because I called him ‘A C3PO made of ham’. Fair enough.

‘And, in my spare time – between hangovers - I rant about the welfare state, library closures and poverty; like a shit Dickens or Orwell, but with tits.’

My Take:
Before picking up Moranthology, I hadn't read any of Caitlin Moran's work. Why? Who didn't tell me about her? Someone is in big trouble. I'm pretty sure someone was supposed to tell me about her before now.  

This book made me laugh out loud. It made me laugh so hard I cried. It made me laugh in that way that causes my kids to peek  warily around the door frame for fear that mom has totally lost it this time. 

I don't really know how to explain or review Moranthology, because there are so many varied pieces. I will give examples of some of my favorites - which means the ones that made laugh crazily and alarm my family.  

Just the title of this piece made me laugh: "I Am a Dwarf Called 'Scottbaio'". In this piece, Moran examines World of Warcraft and creates a character and then madness ensues.  As a long-time gamer, I could relate to her adventures or misadventures, however you want to characterize them. 

I loved the interviews of Keith Richard and Paul McCartney - these should not be missed. I also really enjoyed her reviews, discussions about, fan ravings, whatever you want to call them of Sherlock and Doctor Who.  Her interview with Lady Gaga was eye opening for me. I don't keep up with most pop artists and while I do enjoy her music, especially for working out, I wouldn't consider myself an actual fan of Gaga. The interview piece shed new light and did alter my perceptions of her. 

I found her stance on goody bags to be quite funny and not without a certain logic. Since I have given up having actual parties for my kids (now we just load up a bunch of their friends and take them to see a movie), it is no longer an issue, but I do see her point. 

My one and only complaint about Moranthology, is that Moran has forced me to really look at the plot of Downton Abbey, and while I will concede some of her points, I will never forgive her for making me look so closely at the plot line and forcing me to admit that it can be a bit silly sometimes. I. Will.  Never. Forgive. Her. Ever. 

The book isn't just funny stuff though. Moran also tackles economic issues, poverty, women's issues, parenting, drinking and even fashion. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Moranthology and I will now add  How to Be a Woman to my wish list. 

The Secret Keeper

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
digital galley provided by Simon & Schuster via NetGalley
Description from Goodreads:
1961 England. Laurel Nicolson is sixteen years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.

Fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress, living in London. She returns to Green Acres for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday and finds herself overwhelmed by memories and questions she has not thought about for decades. She decides to find out the truth about the events of that summer day and lay to rest her own feelings of guilt. One photograph, of her mother and a woman Laurel has never met, called Vivian, is her first clue.

The Secret Keeper explores longings and dreams, the lengths some people go to fulfill them, and the strange consequences they sometimes have. It is a story of lovers, friends, dreamers and schemers, play-acting and deception told against a backdrop of events that changed the world.

My Take:
I have been meaning to read some of Kate Morton's work and The Secret Keeper turned out to be a great opportunity. I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book! Now, of course, I will be purchasing her other books. I love it when you find an author that really impresses you.

I enjoyed being pulled along on the search for the reason behind the crime that a young Laurel witnesses in 1961. As Dorothy draws closer to the end of her life, her daughter, Laurel begins to revisit that crime she witnessed as a child and decides she needs to find out what happened and why. Her sister shows her an old photo of Dorothy and a friend that they have never met and this is the catalyst for her search for answers. 

The Secret Keeper has multiple narrators, each with their part to play in the drama that was Dorothy's life.  The story is difficult to describe without giving away too much of the plot. The reader is given pieces of the picture from several different points of view and at different periods during Dorothy's life. I loved the way the  pieces of the story were woven together and I enjoyed the historical aspect as well. I don't want to give very much away, but I do love an unreliable narrator! It keeps things so exciting and makes predicting endings much more difficult. This was a great, entertaining read and I would highly recommend it.

Things Remembered

Things Remembered by Georgia Bockoven
review copy provided by William Morrow
Description from Goodreads:
 To face the future, Returning to her childhood home in the golden hills of Northern California means regret and pain for Karla Esterbrook. Yet she can't refuse when her ailing grandmother, Anna, asks her to help settle her affairs. After all, Anna raised Karla and her younger sisters after their parents' death twenty years before. But from the beginning a powerful clash of wills separated Karla and her grandmother, leaving them both bitter and angry.

A woman must let go of the past

Little does Karla know that a very determined Anna will do everything in her power to bridge the chasm between them--including helping a charismatic veterinarian out to win her granddaughter for himself. But can the past he healed? For Karla, opening her heart could lead to more hurt...or to love and reconciliation--and a passion of which she'd only dreamed.

In the tradition of Barbara Delinksy comes this poignant, moving story of the bonds of family, the strength pf love, and the power of forgiveness.

My Take:

I enjoyed reading Things Remembered by Georgia Bockoven. It is a nice story about family and pain and forgiveness.  Karla is still working through many of her painful memories from childhood. She only half remembers some things and some of the things she remembers are memories of a child who had only a tiny part of the pertinent information. Many of her impressions of her family are from those vague memories of childhood understood with a child's capacity and often missing vital bits of information.  Instead of asking about certain events, Karla goes with her childhood memories and hurts and steels herself against further pain by closing herself off from her grandmother. 

This story is about family and all the ways we can perpetuate discord without even realizing it. I found it interesting how the characters seem to work against each other without seeming to notice what they are doing. I found many of the dynamics within the family - between the sisters especially -to be pretty true to life.  It seems like the family dynamic of your growing up years carries over into adulthood, despite best efforts to get past it. Once the sisters seem to all get on the same page about moving beyond certain mindsets and behaviors, things begin to work out better. I'm not sure I quite buy how quickly the youngest sister turned around, but I thought the book was a nice, heart-warming story that would be a great read around the holidays.

Fever

Fever by Mary Beth Keane
digital ARC provided by Simon & Schuster via NetGalley
Description from Goodreads:

Mary Mallon was a courageous, headstrong Irish immigrant woman who bravely came to America alone, fought hard to climb up from the lowest rung of the domestic service ladder, and discovered in herself an uncanny, and coveted, talent for cooking. Working in the kitchens of the upper class, she left a trail of disease in her wake, until one enterprising and ruthless “medical engineer” proposed the inconceivable notion of the “asymptomatic carrier”—and from then on Mary Mallon was a hunted woman.

In order to keep New York’s citizens safe from Mallon, the Department of Health sent her to North Brother Island where she was kept in isolation from 1907-1910. She was released under the condition that she never work as a cook again. Yet for Mary—spoiled by her status and income and genuinely passionate about cooking—most domestic and factory jobs were heinous. She defied the edict.

Bringing early twentieth-century New York alive—the neighborhoods, the bars, the park being carved out of upper Manhattan, the emerging skyscrapers, the boat traffic—Fever is as fiercely compelling as Typhoid Mary herself, an ambitious retelling of a forgotten life. In the hands of Mary Beth Keane, Mary Mallon becomes an extraordinarily dramatic, vexing, sympathetic, uncompromising, and unforgettable character.

My Take:
Fever by Mary Beth Keane was such a compelling book. I started reading it just to get a sense of the book; I had intended to finish another book I was already reading first. That plan failed miserably. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop until I had finished the book. Another intriguing thing was that when I wasn't reading, but living my life, taking care of everyday things, I found myself thinking about Mary Mallon and how different her life was from my own. 

The world that Mary Mallon - or Typhoid Mary, as most of us know her - was a much bleaker, dirtier, tougher world than we inhabit today. Her New York is the New York of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, of the six and seven day work week, of morphine and opium prescriptions, of rampant fevers of various sorts, of little to no social services. 

Mary left her native Ireland after losing her family one by one. She was tough, and courageous and a hard worker. Mary is quick to see insult even when it isn't actually there. She is sensitive to others' views of herself and she is quick to anger.  She isn't the most sympathetic character, but as I read Fever, I did find myself feeling sympathetic towards her plight. While, Mary can be tough to like, I found her to be very human. Mary Mallon may not have been the most likable person, but she was a person and she had feelings and she wasn't treated very well by the authorities.

Mary's story was fascinating and I enjoyed learning about how the discovery of the "asymptomatic carrier" and how the Department of Health decided to handle the situation and all the subsequent problems. But I also enjoyed just reading about the New York of the time. The novel presents a very vivid and realistic picture of the way life was lived during the time period. 

I would highly recommend Fever to all those who love a good historical novel, are interested in the history of medicine, or are interested in Typhoid Mary in particular. I would also suggest it as one of those books that help to give a sense of a time period and specifically New York City of the early 1900's. 

The Romanov Cross

The Romanov Cross by Robert Masello
digital arc provided by Random House via NetGalley
Description from NetGalley:

Nearly one hundred years ago, a desperate young woman crawled ashore on a desolate arctic island, carrying a terrible secret and a mysterious, emerald-encrusted cross. A century later, acts of man, nature, and history converge on that same forbidding shore with a power sufficient to shatter civilization as we know it.

Army epidemiologist Frank Slater is facing a court-martial, but after his punishment is mysteriously lifted, Slater is offered a job no one else wants—to travel to a small island off the coast of Alaska and investigate a potentially lethal phenomenon: The permafrost has begun to melt, exposing bodies from a colony that was wiped out by the dreaded Spanish flu of 1918. Frank must determine if the thawed remains still carry the deadly virus in their frozen flesh and, if so, ensure that it doesn’t come back to life.

Frank and his handpicked team arrive by helicopter, loaded down with high-tech tools, prepared to exhume history. The colony, it transpires, was once settled by a sect devoted to the mad Russian monk Rasputin, but there is even more hiding in the past than Frank’s team is aware of. Any hope of success hinges on their willingness to accept the fact that even their cutting-edge science has its limits—and that the ancient wisdom of the Inuit people who once inhabited this eerie land is as essential as any serum. By the time Frank discovers that his mission has been compromised—crashed by a gang of reckless treasure hunters—he will be in a brutal race against time. With a young, strong-willed Inuit woman by his side, Frank must put a deadly genie back in the bottle before all of humanity pays the price.

The Romanov Cross is at once an alternate take on one of history’s most profound mysteries, a love story as unlikely as it is inevitable, and a thriller of heart-stopping, supernatural suspense. With his signature blend of fascinating history and fantastic imagination, critically acclaimed author Robert Masello has once again crafted a terrifying story of past events coming back to haunt the present day . . . and of dark deeds aching to be unearthed.

Robert Masello is an award-winning journalist, a television writer, and the author of many other books, most recently the supernatural thrillers Vigil (which appeared on the USA Today bestseller list) and Bestiary. His articles and essays have appeared often in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, People, and Parade,and his nonfiction book, Robert’s Rules of Writing, has become a staple in many college classrooms. His produced television credits include such popular shows as Charmed, Sliders, and Early Edition. A longstanding member of the Writers Guild of America, he lives in Santa Monica, California.

My Take:

Epidemiologist Frank Slater gets himself in trouble with his military superiors because he makes an ethical decision that goes against orders. Amazingly, the court-martial awaiting him disappears and he has a chance to redeem himself when a different kind of crisis arises that needs his expertise.  There is an isolated island in Alaska where the permafrost is melting and exposing the graveyard of a small colony of Russians that had died there in the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. Slater must secure the site and test to see if the virus is still viable before anyone is exposed. 

Unfortunately for Slater, Port Orlov is a very small town and news travels fast. Before he has even had a chance to set up his camp on the island and start work, there is already a rogue element there ready to cause trouble. The three locals who are intent on finding treasure in the graveyard have no idea what they are getting into. Their actions would almost be a comedy of errors if it weren't so dangerous and in the end so tragic and ridiculously bungled. Everything goes wrong from the start, but that doesn't stop Harley Vane, the would-be leader of the gang, from trying to attain his goal.

The two separate groups, the scientists and the treasure hunters, are mostly unaware of each other for a good deal of the time, which makes for entertaining reading as they maneuver around each other pursuing their individual goals.

The saying "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong" pretty much applies to Slater's mission in Alaska. The one positive thing about his adventure, is that he meets Nika, the mayor of Port Orlov. Nika is a great character. She is smart, independent, and brings out the story of the Alaskan natives. I really enjoyed reading her story and would be interested in reading more about this character.

There is a parallel storyline that details the last days of the Romanovs and the fate of young Anastasia. This alternate history is quite entertaining though tragic and it is a very inventive way to explain how the Spanish flu could have reached such an isolated place as Alaska. I loved that the author found a way to combine two very fascinating historical topics into one novel. Both are fun to read about on their own, but combine them, and you have twice the adventure, tragedy and trouble.

I think anyone who enjoys history or historical fiction, or in interested in the House of Romanov, epidemics and Alaska would enjoy this fast-paced, exciting novel.