The 2015 Veronica Reads Project

As I mentioned in my last post, it has been some serious time since I have actually been an active reader. And if you read the few posts right before that one, they are have the common factor of me bemoaning that same fact. Well, I can complain about it all I want, or I can shut up and do something about it.

As it is a bran new year and just the time for New Years Resolutions, I give you The 2015 Veronica Reads Project.

I am hoping that with a little more structure and a little more direct intention, things will slowly put themselves back to normal. And so I have made a list of all the books (both read and unread) that currently adorn my bookshelf. And in 2015, I'm going to read them. Or, to be more realistic, I'm going to start reading them but probably not finish in 2015. But starting and getting through some is really the goal.

To really keep myself in check - and to get myself back in the habit of regular blogging - I'm going to start a weekly check in. This, instead of just a review at the end, I think will force me to make sure I get something done, that way my weekly recaps aren't quite so pathetic.

I do realize that some of these are not great books. Some of them are books I began collecting back when I was in fourth or fifth grade (I'm looking at you, Ann Rinaldi), some were gateway books into bigger and better things, and some were books forced on me in college. But none of that really matters. Sometimes books that are too young or a little closer to the guilty pleasure side are just what a person needs. And a reminder of where you've come from is always appreciated.

So, here's the list:

• Half of a Yellow Sun: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Winter Queen: Boris Akunin
• The Divine Comedy: Dante Aligheri
• Emma: Jane Austen
• Mansfield Park: Jane Austen
• Northanger Abbey: Jane Austen
• Persuasion: Jane Austen
• Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen
• Sense and Sensibility: Jane Austen
• Saul and Patsy: Charles Baxter
• The Flavia de Luce Mysteries: Alan Bradley
• Angels and Insects: AS Byatt
• The Alienist: Caleb Carr
• The Angel of Darkness: Caleb Carr
• Wise Children: Angela Carter
• The Greatest Knight: Elizabeth Chadwick
• And Then There Were None: Agatha Christie
• Little Bee: Chris Cleave
• The Moonstone: Wilkie Collins
• The Woman in White: Wilkie Collins
• The Dr. Siri Paiboun Mysteries: Colin Cotterill
• A Tale of Two Cities: Charles Dickens
• The Brothers Karamazov: Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Sister Carrie: Theodore Driesler
• Fried Green Tomatoes: Fannie Flagg
• The Good Soldier: Ford Madux Ford
• Memoirs of a Geisha: Arthur Golden
• The Princess Bride: Willaim Goldman
• Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen: Susan Gregg Gilmore
• The Cousins War Series: Philippa Gregory
• The Tudor Court Series: Philippa Gregory
• The Earthly Joys Series: Philippa Gregory
• A Long Way Down: Nick Hornby
• Second Person Singular: Sayid Kashua
• Beloved Bondage: Katherine Kincaid
• The Hisotrian: Elizabeth Kostova
• The Bloodletter’s Daughter: Linda Lafferty
• Devil in the White City: Erik Larson
• Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: Gregory McGuire
• Mirror Mirror: Gregory McGuire
• A Company of Lairs: Karen Maitland
• La Mort d’Arthur: Thomas Mallory
• Dr. Faustus: Christopher Marlowe
• Amsterdam: Ian McEwan
• Atonement: Ian McEwan
• Everlasting Love: Ian McEwan
• Saturday: Ian McEwan
• The Shape of Mercy: Susan Meissner
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet: David Mitchell
• Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal: Christopher Moore
• Madam Tussaud: Michelle Moran
• The Book of Unholy Mischief: Elle Newmark
• The Scarlet Pimpernel: Baroness Emmuska Orczy
• When Christ and His Saints Slept: Sharon Kay Penman
• The Brother Cadfael Chronicles: Ellis Peters
• Out Stealing Horses: Per Petterson
• The Song of the Lioness: Tamora Pierce
• Confessions of Georgia Nicolson: Louise Rennison
• My too large collection of Ann Rinaldi books that I think I started collecting in fourth grade
• Harry Potter: JK Rowling
• Scaramouche: Rafael Sabatini
• Scaramouche the Kingmaker: Rafael Sabatini
• Peony in Love: Lisa See
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: Lisa See
• Shanghai Girls: Lisa See
• Dreams of Joy: Lisa See
• Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: Rob Sheffield
• Daughter of York: Anne Easter Smith
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: Muriel Spark
• The Red and the Black: Stendhal
• Miss Buncle's Book: DE Stevenson
• Miss Buncle Married: DE Stevenson
• Treasure Island: Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Merlin Quartet: Mary Stewart
• Gulliver’s Travels: Jonathan Swift
• Anna Karenina: Leo Tolstoy
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Mark Twain
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Mark Twain
• Candide: Voltaire
• Beautiful Ruins: Jess Walter
• Innocent Traitor: Allison Weir
• The Enchanted Forest Chronicles: Patricia C Wrede

Wish me luck!

Testing the waters...

I haven't posted in this blog in close to two years. And to be completely honest, I've read next to nothing in that same time period. I don't know that that's changing any time soon. I want it to change, but I don't know if I will actually be able to do something about it. There are other things in my life that often times are more of a priority. Things like books and blogging get pushed to the wayside.

But I'm thinking about it. I've been thinking about it a lot. And this is the time to be thinking of these kinds of things, changes in the way we run our lives and the things that are important. This used to be something that was so important to me, something that brought me a lot of joy. And then, for no real reason, I just...stopped.

It's four days before the end of 2014. Maybe 2015 will bring about a resurgence in my life in books. Let's see...

Miss Buncle's Book - DE Stevenson

miss buncle's book

de stevenson

c. 1934

299 pages

completed 3/29/2013

read for: tbr list

*may contain spoilers*

One fine summer's morning the sun peeped over the hills an looked down upon the valley of Silverstream.

Miss Barbara Buncle is going through a hard time financially. In order to make ends meet, she decides to write a book. Because, as Barbara claims, she has little imagination, she writes what she knows. And what she knows are the people of Silverstream. Though her publisher Mr. Abbott thinks the book a great success, when the book hits the shelves the people of Silverstream are furious at their less than positive portrayals. As the town embarks on a witch hunt for the mysterious author John Smith, Barbara can do nothing but watch as her book takes hold of the town of Silverstream and turns it on its head.

By the end of April...

Okay, so I didn't get through much in March. That's okay. The fact that I got through anything is still pretty impressive for me.

My goal for next month (or at least for next month's goal post) is to not even mention that it's been slow going on the reading front. Like I'm actually going to just read and not complain about the fact that I haven't been lately. So get excited for this thread to end.

It was my birthday last month and I got quite a few new good looking books, so my to be read list has updated a bit from last month...

To be Read by the End of April
The Coroner's Lunch - Colin Cotterill
Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson
Shanghai Girls - Lisa See
Talking to Girls About Duran Duran - Rob Sheffield
The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag - Alan Bradley

Let's do this!

By the end of March...

I feel like I should really label this post Veronica's Return: This Time She's Serious. Because I wrote a few things last year where I was all "I'm back! And I'm reading!" And that turned out to be a lie. But now, I have actually read something. Like for real, read a whole book. Finished it and everything. And I've even started another one. So we're being...cautiously optimistic that the clouds have broken and the storm is over.

I'm going to wade in slowly. No point in diving in and ending up drowning. Just going to set some nice easy goals. Get back in the swing of things. And take it from there.

To be Read by the End of March

Miss Buncle's Book - DE Stevenson

Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson

Shanghai Girls - Lisa See
The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag - Alan Bradley

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley

the sweetness at the bottom of the pie
alan bradley
c. 2010
347 pages
completed: 3/5/2013

read for: tbr pile

*may contain spoilers*

When Flavia de Luce finds a dying man in her cucumber patch early in the morning, she decides it's the most interesting thing to ever happen in her long eleven year old life. When that dead man is discovered to have old ties to her father, Flavia takes it upon herself to discover the truth. Could her father really be a murderer?

Until yesterday, I seriously hadn't finished a book since moving to Santa Barbara in September 2011. That's crazy. That's literally a year and a half! But now I can no longer say that's true and I'm so glad. I've tried a few times, claimed to be back, but I hope this time is really a true return to form.

Obviously I'm going to think any book that can pull me out of an 18 month slump is good. And to show my gratitude, I'm going to solely focus on the good in this review. Maybe that's not quite fair as there certainly were some aspects of the author's writing style that could use some improvement (such as a few passages that became a bit too expository when certain characters were recounting their history to Flavia), but I just don't care. There will be a chance for me to discuss that next time.

The subject matter the mystery revolved around are two hobbies I probably could not care less about: stamp collecting and magicians. But I was still kept engaged in the mystery. Enough information was given about each to understand their value and importance to the story, but I wasn't bogged down with useless knowledge that put me to sleep. Finding that balance can be difficult for authors writing for an audience that isn't going to be familiar with the subject.

Similarly, the audience wasn't inundated with irrelevant historical detail about the war. It was made clear that the effects of World War II were still felt in every day life in 1950s England, and the extent to which those effects shaped every aspect of Flavia's world was pressed upon us, but never was the audience subjected to a tangential history lecture. Instead, the atmosphere of Post War England and all that implied was delivered through Flavia herself: her voice, her values, her actions, and her relationships.

Flavia's voice was the best part of the book for me, and it's that above anything else that's compelling me to anticipate the rest of the series. She came alive on the page, just the mix of precocious, stubborn, and self important. She struggled with being the baby of the family, and the neglect and patronizing that came with it. She became quite indignant when she wasn't taken seriously or when under estimated. Yet at the same time, her childish qualities shone through and she could become quite the little beast when dealing with her sisters or the cook. I loved when Mrs. Mullet admitted to being quite aware of the de Luce's hatred for custard pie, and that she had been taking them home to her husband all these long years. All of a sudden Mrs. Mullet became a real person instead of just the dithering old lady Flavia had led us to believe her. Flavia's a bit unreliable in that way, so the reader has to be careful not to put all their faith in Miss de Luce.

Flavia's characterization often brought to mind the character of a young Briony Tallis from Ian McEwan's Atonement. She didn't remind me of Briony so much as she offered herself as a counterpoint (or perhaps in Miss de Luce's own vocabulary: an antidote). Briony is representative of a Pre War England. She is literature and poetry, romantic and idealistic. She is a child, an innocent, and is unable to grasp the gray in the world. Flavia, on the other hand, is England after the Blitz. She's been through the war and come out the other side. She is chemistry and poison, truth and rationality. Her eleven years old is more worldly than Miss Tallis could  have been. After her matter of fact discussion with Ned and Mary regarding Mary's brief attack in the bedroom, I'd be interested to see how Flavia would have reacted to all Briony witnessed. I've a sneaking suspicion life might have turned out quite differently for Cecilia and Robbie.

I feel I may have just gotten off topic...

I may be rating this just a tad high. It should probably only rate a 4, but I am going to be grateful for sometime to Alan Bradley and Miss Flavia de Luce for pulling me out of the book pit I had fallen in to. It's good to be back.

5/5

By the end of May

I know May is already two thirds of the way over, but I'm making a monthly goal anyway. It's going to be nice and small, trying to ease my way back into reading and blogging. The blogging I've already started a little bit (I've started a tv blog: similar to this book blog, but about tv instead), but the reading has not come easy for me lately. I posted back in February about being back and motivated to start reading again and nothing really came of it. Now I'm fifty pages into a new book, so I'm cautiously optimistic that things are changing back to the way they used to be. Which is good. I enjoy reading and I enjoy blogging about the books I read and I enjoy the community of book blogging. So here's hoping this is a step in the right direction...

To be Read by the End of May

Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - Christopher Moore

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley

Like I said, a nice and easy goal for the next eleven days. Not that I haven't crapped out on something this easy before...

Books Read in 2011

So, I normally do this post on the 1st of the year, but I guess it's better late than never...

1. Scaramouche - Rafael Sabatini 5/5
2. The Holy Thief - Ellis Peters 4/5
3. Full Dark House - Christopher Fowler 4/5
4. Of Love and Other Demons - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 4/5
5. An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro 4/5
6. Are You There, God? It's me, Margaret - Judy Blume 3/5
7. The Fourth Bear - Jasper Fforde 4/5
8. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 1/5
9. Lady Chatterley's Lover - DH Lawrence 1/5
10. One Amazing Thing - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 4/5
11. Slow Man - JM Coetzee 1/5
12. The Improper Life of Bezelia Grove - Susan Gregg Gilmore 4/5
13. Brother Cadfael's Penance - Ellis Peters 5/5
14. Dr. Faustus - Christopher Marlowe 3/5
15. Maurice - EM Forster 5/5
16. Theft: a Love Story - Peter Carey 1/5
17. The White Queen - Philippa Gregory 4/5
18. I Will Repay - Baroness Emmuska Orczy 4/5
19. Bombay Time - Thrity Umrigar 4/5
20. Amsterdam - Ian McEwan 4/5
21. Dragonwyck - Anya Seton 3/5

Favorite Fiction: Brother Cadfael's Penance
Least Favorite Fictions: Lady Chatterley's Lover

Aaaaaaaand, I'm back!

So...

I seriously don't know what happened. Somehow, when I moved to Santa Barbara in September, something took over my person and I quit reading. Like for serious, I have not finished a book since September. I've barely attempted to START a book since September.

I blame part of it on the library system in Santa Barbara. I definitely don't have the money to BUY all the books I want to read, so instead I tend to be a library girl. But I don't like to BROWSE the library. I have neither the time nor the inclination, and have always enjoyed the ability to reserve the specific books I want to read at the moment. Except the Santa Barbara library charges a dollar per book. I've never belonged to a library that charged me for reserving books. I can maybe MAYBE see charging me a flat rate to use that service (though I don't really like that either, because isn't the point of the library to let me read books for free?), like a certain amount per month or year, but a dollar per book? Considering the amount of books I would put on hold, that's way too much money to spend. So instead of reading, I've been doing other things. Like working. And watching TV.

I do miss reading, though. And blogging. My TBR list is calling out to me, begging to be browsed through. And even if I'm still judging the Santa Barbara library, there are sad, unread books on my shelf that I could be starting on. I hope this post helps break the cycle I'm on and convinces me to pick up a book soon. We'll see.

Until then, my booky friends, know I miss you and I'm thinking of you while I'm off in TV land.

By the end of September...

So I don't know what happened, but for some reason August got super productive. Which is crazy considering I graduated from college in August. You'd think I would have been a little too busy. So go me. Now in September (seriously in about a week) I'm moving down to Santa Barbara so again you'd think I'd be to busy to do too much reading, but I'm going to go ahead and make an attempt anyway.

To be Read by the End of September

Dragonwyck - Anya Seton

The Revolt of the Eaglets - Jean Plaidy

Le Mort d'Arthur - Thomas Malory

Enduring Love - Ian McEwan

Against Nature - Jori-Karl Huysmans

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

To be read...

A Good Hard Look - Ann Napolitano
A Good School - Richard Yates
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead - Barbara Comyns
The Book of Lies - Mary Horlock
Bury the Chains - Adam Hockschild
France and the Cult of the Sacred Heart/The Tragic Tale of Claire Ferchaud - Raymond Jonas (2 books)
Pure - Andrew Miller
Roma - Steven Saylor
The Culture of Property - Jordana Bailkin
Becoming Marie Antoinette - Juliet Grey
The Day the Leader was Killed - Naguib Mahfouz
Rules of Civility - Amor Towles
History of a Pleasure Seeker - Richard Mason
The Last TIme I Saw Paris - Lynn Sheene
The Alcoholic Tradition - William Rorobaugh
The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
Gillespie and I - Jane Harris
The Lantern - Deborah Lawrenson
Next to Love - Ellen Feldmen
All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren

21 new books...

Bombay Time - Thrity Umrigar

bombay time
thrity umrigar
c. 2001
271 pages
completed 8/14/2011

read for: south asian challenge and TBR challenge

*may contain spoilers*

Bombay is awake.

Mehernosh Kanga, son of prominent Parsi lawyer Jimmy Kanga, is getting married today. Mehernosh has recently graduated from Oxford with his own law degree, but instead of choosing to practice in England or being lured away by the glamour of America, he has chosen to return to the city of his birth and join his father's firm in Bombay. The wedding of Mehernosh acts as an excuse for the residents of Wadia Baug, Jimmy and Zarin Kanga's own home, to gather and reflect on their lives together: the disintegrating marriage of Rusi and Coombi, the tragic love stories of Soli and Tehmi, the joy the group finds in their friendships with one another, and their ever changing relationship with the city of Bombay.

This was a surprisingly quick read about the lives of a particular Parsi community living in Bombay. The Parsis are an ethnic minority in India, a people descended from Persian immigrants who fled Muslim persecution during the 10th century. Much of their culture and how it differs from ethnic Indians, specifically their Zoroastrian religion, adds to their stories, their relationships with each other, and even more their relationship with Bombay. That being said, Parsi culture and religion was well integrated into the story without becoming overwhelmingly expository.

While certain characters are mentioned and seen throughout the entire book, each chapter is seen through the eyes of someone different. Each character gets their own story told, their triumphs and losses, how they became the men and women they are today. This is both good and bad; it's good in that each character has their own unique story to tell and it's good to see how the others fit into their story, but also bad because, for example, I really didn't like Coombi and didn't want to hear her story. Thankfully she was the only character I really didn't like. I had some issues with Tehmi, too, but that was a little different. While I liked the character of Tehmi, I didn't like how her story turned out. Every other character seemed so deeply rooted in reality that her breath problem after the death of Cyrus seemed out of place. It was too bizarre.

There wasn't too much overt description of the city of Bombay, no paragraphs of imagery describing streets and buildings, and yet Bombay itself became almost a character in its own right. Bombay changed with the times just as Rusi or Soli or Dosamai did, and its specific role in history had just as strong an effect on certain people as their neighbors. These stories might have turned out quite differently had they not occurred in Bombay.

4/5

Music Mix Friday...ABBA "Waterloo"

Today I took my last final for my last class of my last quarter of college (yea for me!) That class was on the French Revolution and Napoleonic years. I don't really know any songs about the French Revolution, so Napoleon it is! I figured this song was appropriate (or insensitive, depending on your love for Napoleon...).

Does anyone else feel the ABBA women seem awkwardly stiff? The dudes are totally getting into it in comparison. Also, I don't think ABBA quite understood what happened to Napoleon at Waterloo...

I Will Repay - Baroness Emmuska Orczy

i will repay

baroness emmuska orczy

c. 1906

307 pages

completed 8/9/2011

read for: historical fiction challenge, TBR challenge, and scarlet pimpernel series

*may contain spoilers*

"Coward! Coward! Coward!"

In 1793, during the height of the French Revolution, Juliet Marney finds herself rescued from the Parisian sans-culottes by Paul Déroulède, a prominent figure in the National Convention. Déroulède is a passionate public speaker and is beloved by the people of Paris as a favorite of the recently martyred Marat and a staunch republican, someone who understands and speaks for the sans-culottes. Juliet and Déroulède continue to live together after her rescue, but soon realize that neither is exactly what they seem and could either be each other's salvation or damnation.

So, this is a Scarlet Pimpernel novel, but did you notice my complete lack of mention of the Pimpernel? Yeah, that was pointed. The Pimpernel is hardly in it at all. Yes, there is a daring rescue attempt by the end, and yes, you do eventually realize (or guess way in advance) that another minor though pivotal character from earlier in the novel was Sir Percy in disguise, but really this is not his story the way The Scarlet Pimpernel or Sir Percy Leads the Band are. This is very definitely the story of Juliet and Déroulède. I can see that some readers would be irritated by that, but I didn't mind it. I was definitively wrapped up in the story of Juliet and Déroulède, not to mention I just love reading about the French Revolution. But for others, the lack of Pimpernel could be a strong deterrent.

Orczy has an interesting voice as an author. I'm not sure how much of that comes from the time period she was writing in (1900s) or the subject matter, but she writes in an impassioned voice that's unusual in more modern works. It almost felt like she had written a speech (a really, really long speech) rather than a novel. In fact, I actually found that silently reading did a disservice to the prose and ended up reading most of it out loud. I realize that's super a little weird, and thankfully no one else was in the house, but it just seemed to sound better out loud. There are a lot of exclamation marks and bemoaning the fate of France at the hands of the sans-culottes.

I did have some issues with this particular edition (of course, I've since returned it to the library and so can't tell you which edition). There seemed to be quite a few typos. I mean, not on every page of anything, but enough so that I felt it to be distracting (especially while being a dork and reading out loud).

I just finished my very last college course (the final was literally this morning) which was on the French Revolution and it honestly made it so much more enjoyable to read this. It was like a supplement to the course, being able to read the story but pick out the events and figures that we'd been studying in class. I find it best to read historical fiction like this when I really feel like I know the basics of the period.

4/5

Music Mix Friday...Guster "Do You Love Me?"

I think I quite like their long-john jammies.

The White Queen - Philippa Gregory

the white queen
philippa gregory
c. 2009
445 pages
completed 8/3/2011

read for: historical fiction challenge and read from my shelves challenge

*may contain spoilers*

In the darkness of the forest the young knight could hear the splashing of the fountain long before he could see the glimmer of moonlight reflected on the still surface.

When she walked with two sons to the crossroads to wait for the king, Elizabeth Woodville, a widow at age 27, only planned to ask for her dead husband's lands back. She didn't intend to fall in love and become Queen of England. Despite the rise in prominence and power her new position brings to her family, it also brings political struggles and death. Elizabeth makes instant enemies in those who don't like her influence over the king. Not to mention, the country is far from stable as cousins fight each other, each with a claim to the throne.

I've read all of Gregory's Tudor novels, but this is the first of her new series about the Cousin's War (more widely known as the War of the Roses). I think the third in the series comes out later this year and with (maybe?) a fourth one still to come. For anyone who keeps up with me and is familiar with this series, you can probably guess that it makes me crazy that the series' are not written in chronological order. So I try to look at them as stand-alone novels, and for the most part they can be. This book ends with a slight cliffhanger that hopefully gets picked up in a later novel, but otherwise they can be fairly solitary.

The last two Philippa Gregory books I read were split into three narratives, but this one reverts back to having only one. To be honest, I think this books could have benefited from having other narrators along with Elizabeth. Possibly someone like Elizabeth's brother Anthony or something like that (though I realize Anthony would prove to be a problem as a narrator 100 pages or so before the end of the novel)? My reason for this is that there's a lot of time when Elizabeth's not really doing anything, but there's so much going on politically and militarily. As a reader, I felt those episodes would have benefited from a more first hand account. There was just so much action that Elizabeth wasn't privy to that I felt her lone narration did a bit of disservice to the whole story. It could get a little boring with Elizabeth stuck in sanctuary just hearing about the battles. Not to mention, I honestly found the character of Elizabeth a little...I'm not sure, but I wasn't wild about her. She was a little too ambitious at the risk of her family, a little too calculating. Sadly much of her calculations didn't pan out the way she wanted.

One thing I was genuinely happy about was the relationship between Elizabeth and Edward. So often queens in these stories are so very unhappily married, and it's that unhappiness that adds weight and strength to part of their character. So many royal marriages are just horrible and so depressing to read about, which made the genuine love and devotion shown between Edward and Elizabeth incredibly refreshing. In fact, seeing as Elizabeth herself was not what was really drawing me into the story, upon the death of Edward and therefore their relationship I lost a lot of momentum in reading (the first 300 pages were read in three or four days and then the last 100 pages took me a few weeks). Their relationship was definitely uncommon. Politically, it made much more sense for Edward to marry a European princess, someone who could solidify his position as king. And with another royal family behind his children, I feel the little princes would have had a much stronger chance of surviving his death. Of course this is nothing but speculation...

Speaking of relationships, while I wasn't always wild about Elizabeth herself, I did greatly enjoy her family. Again, sometimes in historical fiction specifically about royalty, families don't act the way normal families do (being as they're not normal families). And that's definitely seen in the tenuous relationships between Edward and his brothers George and Richard. But Elizabeth and her family actually loved and supported each other. I loved her mother and I especially loved her brother Anthony. And I was glad we didn't spend too much time with her children other than her daughter (also named Elizabeth). I think it would have been too horrible to get attached to her sons.

I do have to point out that I could have done without the supernatural elements. I understand the reasons for adding them, that Elizabeth's mother was arrested (though acquitted) for witchcraft and that the women of the family claimed to be descendants of Melusina the water goddess, but I found they detracted from the book. I think I could have gotten behind Jaquetta and Elizabeth practicing witchcraft a little more if the results were more ambivalent, but I didn't like the blatant use of magic.

I think this was definitely a good start to a new series. Gregory does a good job of taking historical questions (such as the mystery of the princes in the tower) and creating very plausible answers for them. Of course we don't know what really happened, but the way the answers are presented make for a good argument or at least an interesting possibility. I'm looking forward to continuing the series with The Red Queen.

4/5

Theft: a Love Story - Peter Carey

theft: a love story

peter carey

c.  2006

269 pages (102 pages read)

stopped reading 6/28/2011

read for: i want more challenge

*may contain spoilers*

I don't know if my story is grand enough to be a tragedy, although a lot of shitty stuff did happen.

Michael Boone, known affectionately as Butcher Bones by his brother Hugh, used to be a famous artist in Sydney, Australia. Now, however, after losing his wife and his son and much of his work in a nasty divorce, he's not much more than a broke, drunk has-been. Forced to leave Sydney, Boone and his brother take up residence as caretakers for an old patron's country property. Their lives are quiet until they meet Marlene, a women who lets them know their neighbor is the owner of a priceless painting, a missing Liebovitz. Just days later, the painting goes missing and, being one of the only people to know of its existence and whereabouts, Boone is accused.

And...that's as far as I got. So if this book goes on to be about something else, I'm sorry for misinforming you.

There's nothing overtly wrong with this book. I'm not throwing it down in disgust or anything. In fact, a part of me that vividly remembers how much I loved Oscar and Lucinda thinks maybe I put it down too soon. I haven't managed to take it back to the library yet, even though I stopped reading over a month ago and am even currently sitting in the UW Suzzello Library Cafe. I just got confused. There's some stuff that I don't understand and after 100 pages I'm not invested enough to see if continuing on will clear anything up. So I put it down. But I'm still not sure...we'll see...

1/5 unless I pick it up again.

To be read...

Break the Skin - Lee Martin
The Leavenworth Case - Anna Katherine Green
A Matter of Class - Mary Balogh
Ellis Island - Kate Kerrigan
The Little Stranger - Sarah Stranger
The Heretic's Wife - Brenda Rickman Vantrease
The Killings at Badger's Drift - Caroline Graham (1st in a series)

6 new books and 1 new series. Can you tell I engaged in next to no blogger activity this month?

By the end of August...

Okay, yes, as you may have noticed from the fact that I've not posted since July 3, July turned into the month where I didn't read a single book. I've got maybe 30 pages left of The White Queen which I've been reading since the last day of June, and I've started The Liar's Club, I Will Repay, and Bombay Time, but haven't really gotten more than about 25 pages into any of them. I actually don't like to read more than one book at a time (unless I've got school books or a REALLY big book that I can only read in small increments) which I think is why I haven't really gotten into those three. I'm dragging my feet horribly on The White Queen  and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure why. I read the first 300 pages in incredibly good time (for me) but then something happened and I can't really bring myself to read more than a few pages at a time. It's possible that my enjoyment changed after a certain character died (is it really a spoiler if it's history?), but I'm not sure. Anyway. Hopefully I can force myself to finish it tomorrow and move on.

To be Read by the End of August

The White Queen - Philippa Gregory

I Will Repay - Baroness Emmuska Orczy

Bombay Time - Thrity Umrigar

Dragonwyck - Anya Seton
Amsterdam - Ian McEwan

I was asked after I posted my last monthly goal if I ever finish these monthly lists, and the answer is almost always no. But I think that's okay. I may not always (or ever) complete things, but at least I have goals. :)

Doctor Faustus - Christopher Marlowe

doctor faustus
christopher marlowe
premiered 1592
69 pages
completed 5/29/2011

read for: HSTEU305 (european witch trials)

*may contain spoilers*

Not marching now in fields of Trasimene / Where Mars did mate the Carthaginians, / Nor sporting in the dalliance of love / in courts of kings where state is overturned / Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds / Intends our muse to vaunt his heavenly verse.

A fifteenth century German, Georg Faustus, was a learned man with a reputation for magic. He studied at Heilderberg where he showed an interest in occult topics and was an example of the Renaissance magic tradition, a renewed interest in sorcery and other such learned magics. He was an actual figure around whom myths and legends have sense sprung up. Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus is just one of many versions of this tale. In his play, Doctor Faustus is a learned man with an insatiable thirst for knowledge and power. He sees magic as the ultimate form of both and so makes a pact with the devil, his soul in exchange for twenty-four years of magical power. As the time for payment draws near, Faustus grows fearful and contemplates whether his damnation is inevitable or if its not too late to repent.

I read this for school, for my History of European Witch Trials class (which I kept accidentally referring to as simply my "witchcraft" class, as if I'd ditched the University of Washington for Hogwarts) and wrote a paper on it, so I was reading it for a very specific purpose. Rather than for enjoyment in the story, I was reading it as a text on Reformation belief in diabolism (demon worship) and the rejection of Catholic tradition. And in those instances, there is a wealth of information (enough to write an 8 page paper) from the deeper theological questions (if this is a Reformation text, is Faustus automatically damned for his diabolism or is there room for repentance?) to the more comically superficial (such as Faustus demanding Mephistophiles, his demon friend, appear to him as a Franciscan friar). Which is probably good, seeing as how otherwise, it's really kind of boring. Faustus is kind of a jackass. He didn't have enough depth to him to make me care why he chose to consort with devils. Not a whole lot happens, either. I wish when he got his powers he actually used them for something. Instead he did a few tricks and at one point traveled to Rome to screw with the Pope. But there was nowhere near twenty-four years worth of magical happenings. Not even twenty-four years of mischief.

I do think a good portion of my boredom comes from reading the text as opposed to seeing it performed. It's one thing to actually see devils carry him off to his fate at the end of the play, leaving the viewer without a concrete resolution (sometimes it just goes dark, sometimes screams are heard, and sometimes bloody limbs are thrown back on stage as if the demons tore his soul right out of his body), but reading nothing but sparse stage directions leaves a reader a little cold.

There's a faction of people who believe that Christopher Marlowe was the actual author of all Shakespeare's plays, and after reading this I have to believe those people are crazy (no offense if you're on of those crazies). There's a reason why Shakespeare is taught over and over, with whole classes devoted to nothing but his work, and why Christopher Marlowe is relegated to a week in my History of Witch Trials class.

3/5