A Daughter's Inheritance, by Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller, is the first in a series titled "The Broadmoor Legacy." I did have a slow start to this book, reading a few pages once every few days to begin with. But yesterday I had some time in the evening to devote to reading and found that I was interested enough that I finished it last night. I've read a number of books by Peterson and Miller, and historical fiction is a favorite genre of mine, so this book was sure to appeal to me. The setting is the Thousand Islands area of the St Lawrence River, during the early 1900s. Fanny Broadmoor and her two cousins have a very close relationship, but the rest of the Broadmoor family spend most of their time together arguing and complaining. There are some surprises in store for all of them in the patriarch's will, and Fanny becomes the victim of her greedy uncle's scheme to get control of her share of the inheritance. Of course there is a love story! Fanny loves a young man that her uncle doesn't consider suitable, and although the very nature of this type of novel dictates that they will eventually be together, there are many obstacles in their way. I found a lot to like about this story and some of its characters, and plenty to dislike about the villain of the piece; and although the main plot is fairly predictable, some of the plot twists were not. Although the end of the book does indicate that Fanny and her young man will eventually wind up together, it doesn't happen in this installment - if I want to find out how all the details work out, I will need to read the second installment in the series. I will be watching for it to become available, as I'm interested enough to read some more.
Tuesday, July 15
Monday, July 14
Recent Reads {Pendragon}
Pendragon by Stephen Lawhead. - I actually finished reading this at least a month ago, but forgot to write about it! This is the fourth book in the Pendragon Cycle, but it isn't a continuation of the story. Rather, it is a retelling of the events in the books Merlin and Arthur, but completely from Merlin's viewpoint. There are details and events that aren't included in these previous installments in the cycle, and yet in many ways, it feels like reading a different story entirely. At some points I felt unsure that the timeline of Pendragon really did match up with the events already narrated, but I didn't bother to get out my copy of Arthur to check. (And I have been known to do that very thing - for instance, when I read Mary Reilly I consulted a copy of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde several times to see that the two stories matched.) Having read both Book Three and now Book Four of the Pendragon Cycle, I have twice reached the point in the Arthurian story where Arthur's injury appears to be fatal and he is taken to Avallon in hopes of his recovery there. Familiarity with the legends tells me that Arthur must regain his health and return to rule in the Kingdom of Summer, and so I'm anxious to find out how Lawhead will tell that rest of the story. In order to find out, I will have to find a copy of the fifth and final book in the cycle, Grail.
Wednesday, July 9
Recent Reads {Kabul Beauty School}
Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez. This is another book that first caught my eye quite awhile ago, but I didn't start reading till last week. Once I got started, I was really pulled into the story, although I have to say that the timeline of events was a bit confusing to me at times. Deborah Rodriguez is a hairdresser from Michigan that volunteered to go to Afghanistan with a humantarian aid group shortly after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. She relates how she felt rather useless during the first part of her stay because she had such limited skills in things that seemed practical - nursing, therapy, etc. But she discovered that she made friends with the Afghani people easily, and found that her hairdressing skills were indeed very useful! She wound up teaching a beauty school for Afghani women, training them so that they could open up their own salons and help support their families. This book is a journal and memoir of her experiences and friendships.
When I started reading, I (in my relative ignorance) wondered how much demand there might be for hairdressing and cosmetology in a culture where - I thought - the women were almost always under a veil. Boy, was I wrong about that! Apparently, beauty salons are in great demand and are very successful businesses for these women. I learned a lot about daily life in this war-torn nation and its people just by reading this simple memoir.