Recent Reads {Girl with a Pearl Earring}

This book was my book club's pick for May.  I've been interested in reading it for a long time, so putting it on the book club list was probably a good idea.  Last year our book club read another Tracy Chevalier novel, The Lady and the Unicorn, which I really enjoyed.  Girl with a Pearl Earring was interesting in that the whole story is narrated by the "girl" named Griet.  Her family falls on hard times and she goes into service as a housemaid for the Vermeer family.  Her eye for color and ability to clean the artist's studio without disturbing anything gain her some notice with him, but other family members dislike her. 

 

One of the reasons that I really enjoy historical fiction is my interest in the fact that everyone in history has been an individual "real" person, and although we know much of the statistics and facts about the famous people, often little is known of their personality.  And less is known about the more ordinary folks in days gone by - the foot soldiers, the servants, the peasants, and others.  Although Chevalier's story is fictional, it puts a face and personality on the poorer citizens of that time, those who served and worked largely anonymously.  The difficult positions Griet was placed in by being merely a servant are hard for us to imagine.  Chevalier presents her as a well-rounded character, with virtues and faults, and imagines a compelling story behind this famous, yet mysterious painting of Vermeer's.  Not a great deal is known about Johannes Vermeer himself, and Chevalier chooses, for the most part, to allow his personality to remain a mystery in her novel.

 

Something else interesting - since the movie based on this book has recently come out on DVD, our club decided that our "MOMS Night Out" activity for this month would be to get together and watch the movie.  So we are doing that tonight.  I am really looking forward to it - and I sure hope that I won't be disappointed, as I often have been when I've read a delightful book and then watched the movie. 

Recent Reads {Galileo's Daughter}

Seems like I have had this book on my "I'm Reading Now" section of my little bookshelf widget f-o-r-e-v-e-r...  And I have been working on it for a long time.  It was a book that I thoroughly enjoyed, but was willing to set aside while I was reading something for which I had a deadline!  I would need to put this on hold while I finished up a book club pick in time for the discussion, or had to finish a book before I had to return it to the library.  Galileo's Daughter often got put aside because it was not in huge demand at the library and I could renew it! 

 

I love history, biographies, and historical fiction.  This book turned out to be a delightful combination of history and biography that read almost like an historical novel in places.  The subtitle is A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love and I found that to be an apt description.  Author Dava Sobel gives us a full biography of Galileo, much of it based on the surviving letters written to him by his oldest daughter who lived as a cloistered nun.  The descriptions of Galileo's many scientific, mathematical, and philosophical pursuits and discoveries are complete, as well as an account of his appearance before the Holy Office of the Inquisition and its results; yet are not presented as timelines of dry facts.  Instead we are introduced to Galileo as very warmly human.  He loved his children deeply, and was a generous and devoted father and friend.  His daughter, born Virginia, entered a convent at San Mateo and took vows as Suor Maria Celeste.  Although cloistered as a nun, she nevertheless had a warm and loving relationship with her doting father and they continued a vibrant correspondence throught the years.  Sadly, Galileo's letters to her are lost, but he kept the letters received from her, through which we have a glimpse of a wonderfully intelligent and gracious young woman.  Her writing style is graceful and elegant, and she makes a fascinating character.   From the history books, I knew that Galileo did his best to remain obedient to the Church and to reconcile his discoveries and observations of astronomy with the teachings of the Church at the time.  However, from my reading of this book, I have also formed the opinion that not only was he obedient, he was devout and a man of personal faith.  Suor Maria Celeste's letters indicate that her religion was not just the imposed lifestyle of the convent, but the deeply personal convictions that she was under God's grace, that prayer made a difference, and that love and service to others was an expression on her devotion to the Lord.   When I read the final chapters, I thought how neat it will be to meet this father and daughter in heaven someday.   

 

Recent Reads {Silent in the Grave}

This was such an enjoyable read, and is definitely on my "own it for myself" list now, along with the second in the series, Silent in the Sanctuary.  In the opening pages, Lady Julia's husband collapses at a dinner party and is dead before The First Chapter comes to a close.  Julia finds that he had engaged a private detective named Nicholas Brisbane, who now suspects foul play.  As the story unfolds, Julia realizes that Brisbane's suspicions are perhaps well-founded after all and the two begin an uneasy partnership to investigate.  The murder mystery itself is intriguing, without an easy solution, and along the way we meet members of Julia's eccentric family and discover some of their quirks, flaws, and sins.  I found a good dose of humour throughout the story as well.

 

From the book jacket:

A wholly original mystery set in the extravagant surroundings of upper-class Victorian England, and introducing the compelling, charismatic Lady Julia Grey...

 

Well, I'm off to see if I can find a good deal on this and the second in the series at half.com or at amazon!  I was so wrapped up in reading this book (plus I couldn't renew it from the library so I needed to finish quickly) that I've neglected poor Galileo's Daughter and I also have a book club pick to get working on. 

Recent Reads {The High House}

This fantasy novel, the first by James Stoddard, was recommended to me by someone at The Homeschool Lounge, is one of my new favorite books!! I'm so glad I decided to read it.  It's a wonderful story, with fairy tale and allegorical qualities, and I found it very hard to put down any time I was reading it.  If I hadn't felt the need to turn out the light so my DH could sleep, I probably would have finished this in two nights.  But there were other things to read (book club deadlines!) and so I limited myself a little bit.

The book introduces Carter Anderson as a young boy, living in a very unusual house.  When his life is threatened, his father sends him to live with friends.  Carter is summoned back to the house as a young man, his father having been missing for some time and assumed to be dead.  Carter and some faithful servants and friends have the responsibility of saving the house and the kingdoms within it.  The story takes many twists and turns as Carter seeks to restore balance between Chaos and Order, defeat the Anarchists, and become the Master of the House.

I did find one copy in our inter-library loan system, and of course will now have to return it, but I do plan on buying myself a copy of this book and its sequel, The False House, as soon as I can find them.  This is a book I highly recommend! And I would like to have my own copy so that I can offer it to my boys to read.

Recent Reads {Emerald Magic}

I finally finished this book several nights ago.  It was my MOMS Club book pick for March, but we had all kinds of scheduling issues with the discussion, so we decided to hold over the book for April as well.  So naturally, I paused reading it so I could read other things.  LOL  Our discussion on this will be tomorrow, although a couple of us have already compared notes as to which stories we liked and which we didn't care for.  Will be interesting to get together and see how similar our tastes really are!

 

The cover of Emerald Magic states that it contains "Great Tales of Irish Fantasy" by a collection of authors.  The book is in two sections, the first is "The Little People" and the stories are all about Irish mythological creatures (faerie, leprechauns, banshee, etc); and the second section, "Literary Fantastics," contains stories based on Irish authors or literature.  Authors that contributed short stories to this book include:  Tanith Lee, Elizabeth Haydon, Ray Bradbury, Andrew M. Greeley, Peter Tremayne, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, and Morgan Llywelyn. 

 

As expected with any collection of stories, some I enjoyed and others - not so much.  A couple of these stories left me saying "Huh???" and wondering if there had been a point to the story at all.  The very first story in the book was one of these, which made it hard to continue reading! The stories I particularly liked were:

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  Speir-Bhan (Tanith Lee)
  
  


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  The Merrow (Elizabeth Haydon)
  
  


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  The Butter Spirit's Tithe (Charles de Lint)
  
  


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  Banshee (Ray Bradbury)
  
  


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  The Lady in Grey (Jane Linkskold)
  
  


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  A Drop of Something Special in the Blood (Fred Sabergaen)
  
  


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  For the Blood is the Life (Peter Tremayne)
  
  

Overall, an entertaining read - the nice thing about collections of short stories is that if you come across one you don't like, you have the option to skip it entirely without affecting your enjoyment of the rest of the book.  The stories I did like balanced the ones I had to slog through.  And fortunately, in most cases, the ones I didn't care for were mercifully short.  The stories in the "Literary Fantastics" section even prompted me to look up a little more information about two of the Irish poets and authors they referenced - William Butler Yeats and Bram Stoker.  I must admit that I did not know that Stoker was Irish.  The result of that discovery is that it prompted me to read his Dracula.  Sometimes I think one mark of a good story or a good book is that it prompts me to read something related. 

 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to discussing this book with my friends tomorrow!

Recent Reads {Pendragon Cycle Book Three - Arthur}

I actually finished Arthur well over a week ago, but I have not been keeping up very well with my blogs.  This is the third book in Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle and as the title suggests, it focuses on the life of Arthur - his rise to the position of Dux Brittanica and eventually to High King.  This book is, oddly, the darkest in mood of the three I have read so far.  Despite Arthur's victories in battle and his great successes, there is a sense of foreboding throughout most of the book.  Of course, the character Merlin speaks of his own sense of a fateful day coming; and as a reader I am familiar with the Arthurian legend and know that his glorious Kingdom of Summer eventually comes to an ignoble end.  It doesn't happen in this book, but there are some near misses; and anyone who has any knowledge of the Arthurian stories has a pretty good idea that it won't necessarily end as neatly and "happily ever after" as we might like.  The story is told in three narratives - first, that of Pelleas, Merlin's steward. Lawhead's Pelleas character bears little resemblance to the one described in the article!  The second narrator is Bedwyr (or Sir Bedivere, as we're more likely to know him) and I have to admit that I didn't figure out that Bedwyr was the Welsh version of Bedivere until I looked him up!  The third narrator is the poet Aneirin - a historical figure that, as far as I know, is not usually associated with Arthur.  The character comes into the story as a young boy apprenticed to Merlin.  Towards the end of his story, he tells how Arthur was seriously wounded in a battle, and the effort to save his life.  Merlin takes the ailing king secretly to Avallon - which in this story is a mysterious island where the Atlantean king Avallach and his daughter Charis (mother of Merlin) and their people are living.  Queen Gwenhwyvar and some loyal knights attempt to keep the kingdom intact while Arthur recovers.  But Merlin and Arthur do not return when expected, and when Aneirin leads Gwenhwyvar and the knights to Avallon, it has disappeared.  We are left with this mystery, and a very odd and mournful epilogue which is signed as being written by Gildas.  I read it assuming it was the final lines of Aneirin's story, only to discover it signed by Gildas in the last sentence.  Gildas was a Christian monk, and one story does credit him with an involvement in the Arthurian tales, but I found it an unsettling end to the book.    Good thing there is a sequel!! 

 

I don't know how soon I will be reading the next book, Pendragon.  It will depend on how quickly I get through the (at least) 4 other books on the "reading, and to-read" pile on my night table.

Recent Reads {The Pendragon Cycle Book Two - Merlin}

 

Merlin tells the story of the legendary bard and wizard in a very interesting way.  In this story, Merlin is the son of Taliesin.  Lawhead combines many elements of the legendary figure of Merlin to create a complex character, and as in Taliesin there is a strong underlying theme of the power of God and the influence of Christianity.  This Merlin finds his strength, purpose, and power in serving God rather than in following paganism.  What an interesting take on the legend!  Another intriguing twist is that the people that escaped Atlantis are still major players in this fantasy story - the Atlanteans have a much longer lifespan than the Britons and Celts, and as a descendent of an Atlantean, Merlin's life is long indeed, spanning several generations.  By the end of this book, we have also been introduced to Arthur and events have been set in motion for his eventual kingship.  I loved this book - it was at times very dark and brooding, yet the hope of a coming "kingdom of summer" and the triumph of good over evil kept it from becoming too depressing.