Surrounded by Treasures: books for June

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Friday, June 30, 2006

books for June

June:

Title (bold indicates first-time read) -- Author -- Rating (out of 5)

Falling Angels -- Tracy Chevalier -- 4
- I'm writing this review nearly a month after having finished the book. From here, I can say the following: I liked it. It's quite memorable really, with some unexpected twists and turns. Tracy Chevalier has shown herself to be an adept writer of historical fiction (added bonus: she doesn't just stick to one time period and locale; this particular book is set in Edwardian London) and I look forward to reading what she comes up with next.
The Ladies of Missalonghi -- Colleen McCullough -- 2
- I picked this up at a flea market because I remembered that there was a bit of a kerfuffle surrounding it. Supposedly McCullough borrowed a bit too freely from one of my favorite books, The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery, in writing this little book set in the Blue Mountains in Australia at (I'm guessing) around the turn of the century. And there are DEFINITELY way too many similarities in the stories (from the sequence of events, to the characters, to some lines of narration) for anyone to believe that they're merely coincidental. I don't know whatever happened with that lawsuit; I don't know if I'd go so far as plagiarism, since there are a great many differences as well, but it's definitely close, in my opinion.
  
  Not that Ladies comes anywhere NEAR the level of quality of The Blue Castle. The latter is piquant, refreshing, clever, winsome, and at times biting, all in a wholesome and romantic kind of way. The former is just another moderately trashy period romance. In my humble opinion, of course.
Queen of Swords (ARC) -- Sara Donati -- 4.5
- reviewed here.
Tied to the Tracks -- Rosina Lippi -- 4
- Rosina Lippi (who also writes under the pseudonym Sara Donati, which should sound familiar to you) won the PEN/Hemingway award in 1999, and she has more skill at turning phrases than the average bear (or the average modern writer, either. Or most GOOD modern writers, for that matter). She puts her skill to excellent use in this second novel published under her real name, which centers around a documentary-production company hired to produce a piece about a famous Southern writer in her insular Georgia hometown. Which sounds rather boring, until you bring up the fact that the owner of the production company and the new head of the English department at the college where the famous Southern author teaches once spent a summer falling in love and never actually got over it, even though it's been five years and one of them is engaged to someone else. Lippi writes sexual tension so well that the book very nearly vibrates in your hands. This story is edgy and romantic, and the setting is pitch-perfect. This is one of the best-written contemporary novels I've ever read.
  
  So what's the catch?
  
  Well, nothing, if you don't mind finding as you near the end of a book that it's becoming An Issue Story -- a Very Special Episode, if you will -- and that the issue involved is one you may not agree with or want to have preached to you (in brilliant prose, I'll grant you). I can't say more without even more completely spoiling the ending, which I don't really want to do. A person without my personal biases and beliefs should probably enjoy this novel unreservedly.
The Other Boleyn Girl -- Philippa Gregory -- 4
- I'd had this sitting on my shelf for a few months; it caught my eye this month and I took it down and read it. Overall it was really well-done historical fiction; the life and times of Henry VIII and his (first three) wives came to life for me in a way they never had before (not too difficult, since I could only name one of the wives and really couldn't have cared less, to tell the truth). For the few days I was reading this massive tome I felt like I was living and breathing in 16th-century England (and it stank. But not in a literary way.). Anyone who ever wanted to be a queen in medieval England would more than likely change her mind after reading this book. At first I found the idea of telling the story through the eyes of Anne Boleyn's lesser-known sister was just clever writing; I realized at the end that it was a necessity because she was very nearly the only main character left alive.