the Book Brothel

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by Charlotte Gordon" />

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover, 337 pages, 2005

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I have a weakness for biographies about authors.

Synopsis: Mistress Bradstreet is a biography of Anne Bradstreet, a Puritan

that moved to America with her family at the age of eighteen, just a decade after the

Pilgrims first arrived in the early 17th century. Her experiences in the New World - marriage, starting a family, and trying to establish a Puritan community without

the corruptions that ran rampant in England - were the topics she focused on in her poetry. Through her bravery (women

were often punished for overstepping their boundaries and not showing the submission that

was expected of proper religious women - including venturing it’s the ‘man’s world’ of

writing) and her talent, Anne Bradstreet strove through a number of obstacles to become America’s first established poet.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover, 128 pages, 2005

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I love having gorgeous photograph collections around to randomly browse through when the mood strikes.

Synopsis: The Women is a collection of one hundred photographs focusing on the Native American women of more than eighty tribes (culled from what Cardozo believes may have been as many as 10,000 negatives in which the women were a strong presence in the photo). The photographs cover a lot of ground: portraits of elderly women, groups of giggling school-aged girls, mothers with their babies, women at work, women bundled up for winter - anything that Curtis believed captured the heritage and everyday lives of these Native women in the years of 1899-1928.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 340 pages, 2004

Rating: 10/10

Reason for Reading: My second Booker Prize shortlister read of 2004.

Synopsis: In The Electric Michelangelo, Hall guides us through the life of Cy Parks, whose odd upbringing in a hotel filled with the fatally ill seems to have him destined for an unusual life. Cy meets a tattoo artist, Eliot Riley, and subsequently finds his life expanding and changing for both the better and the worse as he walks among a secret world of people with the craving to brand their outsides with symbols of their souls.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 338 pages, 2004

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year. I figured I’d see how many I could read before the prize was announced so I could see if I agreed on the decision, because I’m silly like that.

Synopsis: The Master is a fictionalized account of the life of author Henry James during the last five years of the nineteenth century, when the acclaimed author was in his mid-to-late fifties. Tóibín introduces us to James’s family, friends, and colleagues, as well love interests, and offers a view on how his writing may have affected his relationships and vice versa.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 412 pages, 2003

Rating: 7/10

Reason for Reading: I believe I saw an ad for it in the book section of Saturday’s Globe and Mail. I like to pick the section up once and a while and hunt for brand new (to me, at least) authors.

Synopsis: Alessandra Cecci is a fourteen-year-old surrounded by the vibrancy of life in Florence during the Renaissance, yet yet she finds herself frustrated because she is expected to be ladylike and either marry or join a nunnery. Neither sounds very appealing to Alessandra, who is determined to paint, a hobby she must keep hidden from parents, who see it as self-sabatoging the chance for a normal life. When a painter shows up to paint her father’s cathedral, she thinks she may have found the answer to her prayers, but with the turbulance of an upcoming war, things might not turn out the way she wants them to….

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 373 pages (incl. 54 pages of notes/bibliography), 2003

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I’m fascinated by how the Renaissance was a time for such dramatic strides in so many areas seemingly all at once, and Michelangelo’s works are definitely a favourite of mine.

Synopsis: Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling analyzes all of the troubles that ailed Michelangelo in his four years of painting the Sistine Chapel for the religious leader of his time, Pope Julius II. Michelangelo was forced by the pope to paint the ceiling, despite how Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor rather than a painter, as well as various issues with his family, a lack of money, a rivalry with the young up-and-coming painter named Raphael, an expected completion date that moved ever further away, and war being waged outside of the city. This is an account of how Michelangelo dealt with all of the obstacles to paint one of the most magnificicent artistic endeavors the world has ever seen.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 504 pages, 2004

Rating: 8/10

Reason for Reading: I loved loved loved The Other Boleyn Girl.

Synopsis: In mid-sixteenth century England, two princesses are battling for the royal throne, along with the religious fate of the country. In her early teens, Hannah Green is sent to the royal court as a holy fool after it is discovered she has the ability to see the future. Concealing her Jewish heritage, which is welcome to neither the Protestants or the Catholics, Hannah is locked in a hopeless internal battle with her ‘cursed’ religion and her growing love for a lord at the court, despite being betrothed to another man. As times turn deadly because of the turmoil in the royal court, Hannah is quickly discovering that there is no safe religion or even opinion. Hannah might be at the greatest risk of all, because both contenders to the throne want a prediction from her saying that she will successfully rule as the Queen of England.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 661 pages, 2001

Rating: 10/10

Reason for Reading: It’s just consistantly come up as a ‘must-read’ over the past few years, so I finally hopped on the bandwagon.

Synopsis: The Other Boleyn Girl is set in sixteenth century England, where King Henry is growing weary as his wife, Queen Katherine, has been unable to bear him a son. As she ages, the window of time she has left to give him an heir to the throne grows ever narrower, and the family of Anne and Mary Boleyn is determined to take advantage of this fact. In their quest for wealth and power, the Boleyn family may be willing to sacrifice body, mind, and soul…

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 449 pages, 1997

Rating: 7/10

Reason for Reading: I initially noticed this one at a used bookstore, but wasn’t really intrigued by the war setting. After I saw the movie, though, which I really liked, I changed my mind.

Synopsis: America’s civil war has divided a nation in thought and on a personal level. The story is told in the alternating viewpoints of Ada, a delicate belle left to fend for herself on a farm, and Inman, a wounded soldier that doesn’t care about the cause anymore and just wants to return home. In the book, we see the struggle for survival, both in finding a way to live and finding a reason to want to live.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in mass-market), 698 pages, 1997

Rating: 7/10

Reason for Reading: Raves from a number of sources.

Synopsis: A blend of murder, mystery, treason, love, and science, four men tell their side of a mysterious tale set in 17th century England in which motives for a man’s death are numerous and the finger-pointing is rampant. Lies and secrecy veil the truth as each man sets out to write a version of events that fits his own agenda.

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