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Archive for the ‘Historical’ Category

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

Thursday, March 18th, 2004

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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Posted in Fiction, Award Winner / Nominee, Historical, War/Military | 4 Comments »

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears

Wednesday, February 18th, 2004

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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Posted in Fiction, Historical, Mystery | No Comments »

Testament by Nino Ricci

Tuesday, December 30th, 2003

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 456 pages, 2002

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: A buzz book; I read Lives of the Saints for a high school English class and enjoyed it.

Synopsis: A fictionalized account of the life of Jesus, told by four people - Yihuda, Miryam, his mother, and Simon, a Syrian shepherd. This isn’t the widely accepted Jesus from the Bible, however - Testament is presented as the ‘true’ story of Jesus, working with the idea that the Bible may be full of misconstrued stories that passed through generations before being written down.

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Posted in Fiction, Award Winner / Nominee, Historical, Religion | No Comments »

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Saturday, December 6th, 2003

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 308 pages, 2001

Rating: 10/10

Reason for Reading: Showed up on a lot of people’s best-of lists.

Synopsis: A small village is struck with the plague in 1666 England, and is convinced by the town’s minister that they must quarantine themselves to avoid spreading it to other towns. Through the eyes of Anna, a widowed mother, we watch a town struggling with faith, superstition, isolation, fear, and love. Anna finds herself thrust into the center of the action with her appalling family and a discovered gift with healing herbs that brings her to friendship with the minister’s wife, Elinor.

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Posted in Fiction, Historical | No Comments »

The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier

Tuesday, October 7th, 2003

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 304 pages, 1997

Rating: 7/10

Reason for Reading: I enjoyed Chevalier’s previous books, especially Falling Angels.

Synopsis: Told in alternating viewpoints of Ella, a 20th century woman who moves to a small town in France with her husband, and Isabelle, Ella’s ancestor of four centuries before, an outsider in her own time, the book explores the ties between the two women. Haunting dreams send Ella researching her family tree, with the help of an alluring librarian, Jean-Paul, to unlock her family’s disturbing past, taking her on a journey that forces her confront her own life.

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Posted in Fiction, Contemporary, Historical | No Comments »

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire

Thursday, September 25th, 2003

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 372 pages, 1999

Rating: 6/10

Reason for Reading: It generated a lot of love/hate opinions at BookCrazy, so I had to see which camp I fell into.

Synopsis: An alternate look at the story of Cinderella, told through the eyes of a step-sister made out to be more an ugly victim of circumstance than a wicked person. Iris and Ruth’s mother take them to Holland after the death of their father, where they take up with a painter, doing his chores and Iris trying to learn his trade, while their mother tries to make a better place for them all in society.

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Posted in Fiction, Historical | No Comments »

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

Tuesday, September 9th, 2003

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 639 pages, 2000

Rating: 10/10

Reason for Reading: I avoided it for a while, despite the Pulitzer Prize, because it was about comic books, but the continuing praise from unexpected sources eventually drew me in.

Synopsis: Escaping from the Holocaust in Europe, Joe Kavalier lands on the doorstep of his American cousin, Sam Clay, where they form an immediate alliance between Joe’s drawing skills and Sam’s incredible story-telling abilities and begin to produce some of America’s first comic books. The comic books become symbolic of the personal struggles of the two young men, with the Holocaust and Joe’s struggle to save his remaining family from Hitler becoming a large part of America’s comic book empire.

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Posted in Fiction, Award Winner / Nominee, Historical | No Comments »

The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys

Monday, July 14th, 2003

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 182 pages, 2002

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: A group read for one of my Yahoo groups.

Synopsis: A lonely horticulturist volunteers to aid England’s war efforts of 1941 by moving to the country and leading a small group of girls in a potato-growing venture. While there, Gwen explores the possibilities of love with a poetry-reciting soldier, the lives of the young girls she is put in charge of, and a lost garden. Clearing away the tangle of weeds, Gwen is driven to interpret the story the garden and its creator have left behind.

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Posted in Fiction, Historical, War/Military | No Comments »

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

Wednesday, April 9th, 2003

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 226 pages, 1998

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: This one got some buzz before the movie adaptation was released.

Synopsis: The Hours takes a brief but deep look into the lives of three women: Virginia Woolf as she begins to write Mrs. Dalloway; Clarissa, who is dealing with her friend having AIDS; and Mrs. Laura Brown, who is finding she does not enjoy being a housewife as much as she expects herself to. The stories all intertwine and relate back to Woolf’s novel and how it is influencing their lives.

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Posted in Fiction, Award Winner / Nominee, Contemporary, Historical | 2 Comments »

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Monday, March 31st, 2003

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 511 pages, 2002

Rating: 10/10

Reason for Reading: A buzz book.

Synopsis: Sue Trinder, orphaned and left to Mrs. Sucksby and a “family” of cheats and liars in London, 1862, is about to receive a ticket out of poverty. All she must do is pose as a personal maid and convince a young girl to marry the conniving Gentleman, who will then take her money and split it with Sue. But Maud Lilly will prove to have a mind of her own in this Dickensian tale of deceit, lies, and murder.

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Posted in Fiction, Award Winner / Nominee, Historical, Suspense | 2 Comments »

Archive for the ‘Historical’ Category

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 449 pages, 1997

Rating: 7/10

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

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

Rating: 7/10

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 456 pages, 2002

Rating: 9/10

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 308 pages, 2001

Rating: 10/10

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 304 pages, 1997

Rating: 7/10

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 372 pages, 1999

Rating: 6/10

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 639 pages, 2000

Rating: 10/10

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 182 pages, 2002

Rating: 9/10

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 226 pages, 1998

Rating: 9/10

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 511 pages, 2002

Rating: 10/10

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