Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini - TLC Book Review


Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini
  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Plume (September 24, 2013)
Source? the publisher via TLC Book Tours
**FTC Disclosure - I received a complimentary copy of Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker in exchange for an honest review.  The review below and the opinions therein are my own and offered without bias.

Why? I first became interested in Elizabeth Keckley when I read and reviewed The Lincoln Conspiracy by Timothy O'Brien.  

What Now?  I need more Lincoln...and more Elizabeth Keckley.  Behind the Scenes by Elizabeth Keckly is my next read.

Golden Lines

All of Washington City was abuzz with anticipation - and in certain quarters, apprehension - for the arrival of President-Elect Lincoln. (18)

"Shall we go downstairs, Mother?" the president asked his wife.

Excluded from her husband's inner circle, missing her departed sisters and cousins, disdained by the popular ladies of Washington, Mrs. Lincoln often told Elizabeth - sometimes sadly, sometimes in defiance - that Elizabeth was her only true friend within a hundred miles. (45)

Elizabeth felt the room shift and turn around her before all went dark. (65)

Great heaving sobs choked off his words. Tears filled Elizabeth's eyes as she watched the anguished father bury his head in his hands, his angular frame shaking with grief. (82)

Outraged abolitionists insisted that the president seemed incapable of understanding that the surest and swiftest way to win the war and save the Union was to emancipate all slaves everywhere and to allow them to don Union blue and take up arms in service to the nation.  As for Elizabeth, she certainly wanted slavery abolished everywhere.  She wanted colored men to be allowed to enlist as her son, George, had done.  But she also wanted the contraband to be healthy, well fed, educated, employed, and prosperous, and she knew that no amount of wishing could make it so - only hard work and careful planning. (110)

Immediately Elizabeth understood, and she felt humiliated for ever entertaining the slightest expectation of being offered the position.  "His other employees don't wish to work side-by-side with a woman of color." (127)

Her son was, in the eyes of the law, illegitimate.  George was a product of rape, the offspring of a liason she had never desired, and yet, due to the curious morality surrounding race and marriage and the "peculiar institution" of slavery, Elizabeth would suffer for what would be perceived as her sexual indiscretion. (129)

Mrs. Lincoln hesitated, took a deep breath, and said, all in a rush, "I have contracted large debts, of which he knows nothing, and which he will be unable to pay if he is defeated." (172)

"Can he mean it?" Emma asked in a whisper. "Will our men be permitted to vote?"
"I think they will be," Elizabeth whispered in reply, a thrill of excitement putting a tremble in her voice.  Perhaps that would only be the beginning.  Perhaps the lady suffragists would finally have their way too. (213).

Morning came at last, gray and somber.  At half past seven, a distant church bell began to toll, and then another joined it, and another, until all the bells in Washington resounded with the terrible news. (225)

"Tell me, how can I live without my husband any longer?"  Mrs. Lincoln suddenly cried.  "This is my first awakening thought each morning, and as I watch the waves of the turbulent lake under our windows I sometimes feel I should like to go under them." (259).

"I don't know why you miss them so.  I never, never wish to see any of my masters or mistresses again." (270).

The New York Citizen: "Has the American public no word of protest against the assumption that its literary taste is of so low grade as to tolerate the back-stairs gossip of Negro servant girls?" (319)

"You who have never suffered cannot understand the full meaning of liberty. (346)

Slowly drawing in a deep breath, Elizabeth nodded.  She did not want his pity.  "When I am in most distress," she said with an effort, keeping her voice calm and even, "I think of what I often heard Mr. Lincoln say to his wife: 'Don't worry, Mother, because all things will come out right. God rules our destinies.'" (349)

Summary from Amazon

"In a life that spanned nearly a century and witnessed some of the most momentous events in American history, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was born a slave. A gifted seamstress, she earned her freedom by the skill of her needle, and won the friendship of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln by her devotion. A sweeping historical novel, Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker illuminates the extraordinary relationship the two women shared, beginning in the hallowed halls of the White House during the trials of the Civil War and enduring almost, but not quite, to the end of Mrs. Lincoln’s days."

What I Liked

The history of the African American woman...so many with so many talents...so many individuals who could have been but weren't bc of slavery.  Just like House Girl's Josephine and Elizabeth Keckley in Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, there were many others that we'll never know because their very identity was stripped from them.  These are losses we cannot recoup. All the more reason to cherish those who we can know.

A glimpse of the Lincolns behind the doors of the White House...their habits, their realness, their partnership.

The deaths...and there were many...are heart wrenching as, of course, I expected, but Chiaverini's writing made me feel the grief, the torment, the "keening."  Wow.

The politics - I'm not a political junkie by any stretch of the imagination...and can even be pretty snarky when it comes to those kinds of discussions.  But, again, Chiaverini helps the reader see history in the making through the layman/woman's eyes.  Even though I knew the story, Chiaverini unfolds it as if it is happening right now, and the reader is a player in the midst.

REALITY - so many times history is spit shined.  Not here. While freeing slaves state by state, signing the Emancipation Proclamation, and finally the Thirteenth Amendment were the right things to do, the reality of streets swarming with illiterate, starving families and field hands with nothing to their names became a social problem, one that needed relief and fast.  Lives were at stake.  The Contraband Relief Association were groups I had never heard of before.  Freedman's Villages were little more than immigration camps with little to sustain them.  Even among abolitionists, there were many who were not prepared to deal with the results of the new laws.  Freeing the slaves was just the beginning, not an end.

More REALITY - Just because the laws of the United States freed slaves, that didn't mean racism disappeared.   In the North, In the South, In the East, and In the West.  I think it's easy for people to blame the Civil War and racism on the South.  Everybody wants to point a finger.  But Northerners in Washington during the Civil War were the ones who didn't want to work with Elizabeth Keckley and a New York City hotel didn't want her on the same floor as white people when she went to help Mrs. Lincoln two years after the President's assassination.  I also read an interview just the other day with actress Alfre Woodard who is originally from Tulsa OK.  Discussing racism, she purported that she was never called "the n word" until she went to college in Boston.  Racism is more than a "Southern thang," and I was so very glad to see that point embedded deeply within Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker.

While the Lincolns are obviously a part of this story, they are not THE story.  Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker is Elizabeth Keckley's story...the one she deserves.  The famous first family is her backdrop.

The letter from widow Queen Victoria to the newly widowed Mary Lincoln.

Elizabeth's book writing process.

What I Didn't Like

Nothing. Nada. 

Overall Recommendation

If you are in the least bit interested in American history, the Civil War, President Lincoln, Mrs. Lincoln, Elizabeth Keckley, and/or the changing times for former slaves, you'll want to pick this one up.

The Author






Other Stops on the Tour

Monday, November 18th:  BookNAround
Tuesday, November 19th:  Always With a Book  **book spotlight and giveaway
Thursday, November 21st:  A Chick Who Reads
Thursday, November 21st:  Bibliotica
Friday, November 22nd:  Books are the New Black
Monday, November 25th:  A Bookworm’s World
Tuesday, November 26th:  Red Headed Book Child
Wednesday, November 27th:  Lit and Life
Friday, November 29th:  Tiffany’s Bookshelf
Monday, December 2nd:  Book-alicious Mama
Tuesday, December 3rd:  Peppermint Ph.D.
Wednesday, December 4th:  Must Read Faster
Thursday, December 5th:  The Daily Mayo
Friday, December 6th:  West Metro Mommy Reads
Monday, December 9th:  Ageless Pages Reviews
Tuesday, December 10th:  Lavish Bookshelf
Wednesday, December 11th:  Bookchickdi
Thursday, December 12th:  Broken Teepee
Tuesday, December 17th:  Kritter’s Ramblings

Monday, November 25, 2013

Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope - TLC Book Review


Sense & Sensibility by Joanna Trollope
• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harper (October 29, 2013)

Source? the publisher via TLC Book Tours
**FTC Disclosure: I received a copy of Sense & Sensibility from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  The review below and the opinions therein are my own and offered without bias.

Why? I've never read the orginal.  There, I've said it.  I was an English major too.  I feel like I'm admitting some sacrilige, but my literature emphasis area and love has always been American lit.  Forever I have meant to go back and read the Bronte and the Austen novels, but sadly, I just haven't.  When these newer versions starting popping up everywhere, I made a pact with myself that I would not read them until I read the originals.  I've kept that pact until now.  I had every intention too, of reading the original before Trollope's version as soon as I agreed to read and review it.  But, alas, I did not.  It will be interesting to see how my response to Trollope's version compares with those who HAVE read the original.

What Now?
Yeah, I'm gonna read the original.  I need to.  I have to.  What better time for the classics than the holidays? :)

Golden Lines

Elinor sometimes wondered how much time and energy the whole Dashwood family had wasted in crying. (6)

Elinor clamped an arm round her shoulders and held her hard.  It must be so awful, she often thought, she often thought, to take everything to heart so, as Marianne did; to react to every single thing that happened as if you were obliged to respond on behalf of the whole feeling world.  Holding her sister tight, to steady her, she took a breath.  (7)

Fanny had wanted a man and a big house with land and lots of money to run it and a child, preferably a boy.  And she had got them.  All of them.  And nothing, absolutely nothing, was going to stand in the way of her keeping them and consolidating them.  Nothing. (13)

However detestable Fanny had made herself since she arrived at Norland, all the Dashwoods were agreed that she had one redeeming attribute, which was the possession of her brother Edward. (23)

"Do you, Elinor Dashwood, picky spinster of this parish for whom no man so far seems to be remotely good enough, fancy this very appealing basket case called Edward Ferrars?" (26)

"Wouldn't it just completely piss off Fanny if you and Ed got together?" (27)

"Say it, Ellie, say it.  Say, 'You, Marianne, should not have sex with Wills in the house that's going to be his anyway, one day.' Just say it." (125)

"Why doesn't he ring? Marianne wailed.  Why doesn't he answer my emails?  Or my texts even?  Why doesn't he at least let me know he's alive?" (163)

"Actually," Lucy said, "he is my Ed." (172)

Marianne turned on her side to face Elinor.  She said, much more urgently, "Ellie, I've got to.  I am going mad here; it's like a kind of prison, a prison of boredom and nothingness.  I've got to know what's happening to him."
Elinor said, "Have you looked on Facebook?"
"He hasn't been on it.  He hasn't been on it since he left here.  He hasn't even changed his status from 'single'. (186)

"You poor dear, " Abigail had said to Elinor. "It always comes back to you, doesn't it?  The price o having your head screwed on the right way." (204)

"You're telling me that Wills has dumped Marianne for the daughter of a rich Greek he hardly knows?" (205)

"You wouldn't believe it," Charlotte Palmer said, "but it's all over YouTube already!  Someone must ahve been filming, on their phone, at the wedding.  Aren't people just the end?" (209)

Those Dashwood girls, Char, such sweeties, but really hopeless. So emotional. I suppose you only have to look at their mother, don't you?" (233)

"Poor buggers," he said, "the whole bloody lot of them.  What a nightmare." (308)

TLC Summary

John Dashwood promised his dying father that he would take care of his half-sisters. But his wife, Fanny, has no desire to share their newly inherited estate with Belle Dashwood’s daughters. When she descends upon Norland Park with her Romanian nanny and her mood boards, the three Dashwood girls—Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret—are suddenly faced with the cruelties of life without their father, their home, or their money.
As they come to terms with life without the status of their country house, the protection of the family name, or the comfort of an inheritance, Elinor and Marianne are confronted by the cold hard reality of a world where people’s attitudes can change as drastically as their circumstances.
With her sparkling wit, Joanna Trollope casts a clever, satirical eye on the tales of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Reimagining Sense and Sensibility in a fresh, modern new light, she spins the novel’s romance, bonnets, and betrothals into a wonderfully witty coming-of-age story about the stuff that really makes the world go around. For when it comes to money, some things never change. . . .

What I Liked

The ridiculousness of it all...for all its silliness, I think that's exactly what Trollope had in mind.  I do wish that I had read the original first though because I think I would have been in on more of the tongue in cheekiness.


What I Didn't Like

I'm a little bit of a cynic where all this smoochy, smoochy, googly eyes are concerned, and before I reached 100 pages, I was rolling my eyes.  Oy.

Belle - gracious alive, what a meddling mother!
Fanny - what an evil witch...and that husband of hers..yuck!

True love, treehouses, husband hunting, private schools, cottages, lordships and ladyships and all the relatives in between are quaint and lovely in period pieces, but those same things didn't work for me in this twenty-first century re-telling.  

Most of the men in this story...why in the world these girls were pining over them I haven't a clue.

Overall Recommendation

I will be interested to find out how other bloggers who read the Austen classic will respond to Trollope's take on the Dashwoods, their extended families, and their all out obsession with who would marry who.  

The Author




Joanna Trollope is the #1 bestselling author of eighteen novels, including The Soldier’s Wife, Daughters-in-Law, Friday Nights, The Other Family, Marrying the Mistress, and The Rector’s Wife. Her works have been translated into more than twenty-five languages and several have been adapted for television. She was appointed to the Order of the British Empire in 1996 for her services to literature, and served as the Chair of Judges for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012. She lives in London and Gloucestershire.

Other Stops on the Tour

Tuesday, October 29th: BookNAround
Wednesday, October 30th: Diary of an Eccentric
Thursday, October 31st: Savvy Verse & Wit
Friday, November 1st: Doing Dewey
Tuesday, November 5th: No More Grumpy Bookseller
Wednesday, November 6th: Lavish Bookshelf
Thursday, November 7th: A Chick Who Reads
Monday, November 11th: Kritters Ramblings
Tuesday, November 12th: BoundbyWords
Wednesday, November 13th: Book-alicious Mama
Thursday, November 14th: Kahakai Kitchen
Monday, November 18th: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom
Tuesday, November 19th: Alison’s Book Marks
Wednesday, November 20th: A Bookish Way of Life
Monday, November 25th: Peppermint PhD
Tuesday, November 26th: A Reader of Fictions
Wednesday, November 27th: guiltless reading
Thursday, November 28th: Excellent Library

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

The House Girl by Tara Conklin - TLC Book Review


The House Girl by Tara Conklin

Source? the publisher via TLC Book Tours
**FTC Disclaimer - The publisher provided me a complimentary copy of House Girl in exchange for an honest review.  The review below and the opinions therein are my own and offered without bias.

Format? 
Paperback: 400 pages

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (November 5, 2013)

Why? My lit emphasis area in college was American Lit.  I was fortunate enough at one point in graduate school to study slave narratives and was blown away by the talent that had been smothered, much of it forever since there are few records to trace the family histories and lives of slaves.  
Reminds me of the Holocaust.
Wiping people off the face of the earth.

I was reminded of? The Color Purple, The Awakening

What Now?
The House Girl is Conklin's first novel, but I'm sold on anything else she writes. She's already on my auto ship list at Amazon.

Golden Lines

During the course of the meeting with Dresser, Lina's desk had been cleared of all the papers relating to her old cases and a pile of books and binders  had replaced them: information on class action lawsuits, histories of U.S. slavery, economic treatises, financial models of farm worker wages and earned income, and case precedent - reparations of Holocaust survivors, for Japanese Americans, for East Germans post-reunification; decisions from the International Court of Justice, the Nuremberg Tribunals, the British Foreign Compensation Act. (72)

"Law is the bastion of reason," Lina's criminal law professor had always liked to say.  "There is no place for feeling.  As lawyers, we reason, we observe, we analyze." (75)

The harm was everyone and everywhere. (77)

As Jospehine passed the watercolor, she too paused to look upon it.  At Missus Lu's acceptance of Melly's praise, a familiar bitter emptiness sounded within Josephine.  An awareness came to her, as it had countless times before, that she possessed nothing, that she moved through the world empty-handed with nothing properly to give, nothing she might lay claim to. (104)

To be identified as white or black was quite literally a question of life or death. (127)

She marveled at Dan's poise, the unapologetic exercise of his presumed right to be an ass. (135)

The drawers she had kept so carefully shut all these years were now flying open as though in deciding to run again she had let loose something rough and dangerous within herself as well. (154)

"Long have I known Father's views on the instituion, but I had not heard him speak so openly before.  Slavery breeds nothing but sloth & degredation among the landowners, he told me, & it's the greatest hypocrisy that extends it still within our national borders." (212)

Lina stopped reading.  Josephine.  Heavy with child.  A descendant. (231)

Summary
- from TLC

Lina Sparrow is an ambitious young lawyer working on a historic class-action suit seeking reparations for the descendants of American slaves. Josephine is a seventeen-year-old house slave who tends to the mistress of a Virginia tobacco farm—an aspiring artist named Lu Anne Bell. Alternating between antebellum Virginia and modern-day New York, The House Girl is a searing tale of art, history, love, and secrets that intertwines the stories of two remarkable women.


What I Liked

Josephine - While Josephine and Lina are the main characters of Conklin's novel, Josephine is the one who stood out to me.  She was the woman stuck in the room with the yellow wallpaper, she was Emily Dickinson, and all the other women who came before her who were forgotten.  

Alternating Narrative - seems a lot of novels are using this strategy lately.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.  Conklin allows the reader to discover Josephine right along with Lina this way...and boy, does it ever work.

The letters, historical documents...we discover the truth as Lina discovers it...through the words of those who lived it.

The Undertaker - Mr. Rounds - The Underground Railroad comes alive in The House Girl.  My gut was in knots when he prepared the next shipment, and when Dorothea became involved...and especially when Dorothea tells Samuel.  I just knew.

The Ending.  We either choose humanity or we don't.
It's that simple.

What I Didn't Like

Mister - every scene with Mister was like reading The Color Purple all over again.

Missus Lu - Conklin created Missus Lu as the character from a novel about slavery that some readers might say, "See, look, not all slave owners were bad people."  In between the lines, however, I think Conklin shows us just how faulty that excuse is.  Even though Missus Lu was "nice" to Josephine, she keeps her like a doll.  Josephine's life was important only as she served to keep Missus Lu's life pleasant.  Josephine couldn't have or be anything that didn't positively affect Missus Lu's life.  Even a child.
I honestly never felt sorry for this woman.  Never.

Slave hunters - not sure what you want me to say here...hunting human beings.


Overall Recommendation

The House Girl is one of those few books that comes around that everybody should read.

The Author


Tara Conklin has worked as a litigator in the New York and London offices of a corporate law firm but now devotes her time to writing fiction. She received a BA in history from Yale University, a JD from New York University School of Law, and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Born in St. Croix, she grew up in Massachusetts and now lives with her family in Seattle, Washington. The House Girl is her first novel. - TLC Book Tours




Other Stops on the TLC Tour

Tuesday, November 5th: Read Lately
Thursday, November 7th: A Bookish Affair
Monday, November 11th: Books in the Burbs
Tuesday, November 12th: Jorie Loves a Story
Wednesday, November 13th: Peppermint PhD
Thursday, November 14th: Lavish Bookshelf
Monday, November 18th: Olduvai Reads
Tuesday, November 19th: BoundbyWords
Wednesday, November 20th: Book-alicious Mama
Tuesday, November 26th: A Bookish Way of Life

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Buying In by Laura Hemphill - TLC Book Review and Giveaway


Buying In by Laura Hemphill
Houghton Mifflin, 2013

Source? the publisher via TLC Book Tours
**FTC Disclosure - The publisher provided me a complimentary copy of Buying In in exchange for an honest review.  The review below and the opinions therein are my own and offered without bias.

Format? paperback, 297 pages, ARC

Why?  I'm an English teacher, so the life of Wall Street is totally almost out of my imaginable zone, but I'm curious about it at the same time...especially when the main character is a young, very intelligent, independent young woman, trying to make her way in the world.

I was reminded of? The Devil Wears Prada

What Now? the publisher is offering a copy of Buying In for one reader of Peppermint Ph.D.  Leave your name, blog name, and email address in the Comments section, and I'll announce a winner next week.  I'm a little behind on giveaways, so next Monday I'll announce winners for Buying In as well as several of my past reviews.  Get in on the action while you still can :)

The Prodigal

The Returned

Freud's Mistress

Golden Lines

Ethan slid his markup across the table.  "Finish the presentations by 5 a.m.  Leave them here.  I'll pick them up before my flight.  I want both of you at your desks, queued up, 8 a.m. In case we need to run any analysis on the fly."  Ethan rose, fastening the top button of his suit jacket with a quick flick of his thumb and index finger: they were dismissed. (5)

Mergers are like marriages: only one spouse can be depressed.  (41)

Little Prince Sinclair had been trying to poach AlumiCorp from Morgan Stanley for years, but it was Ethan, the state-school kid from High Point, North Carolina, the son of an assembly-line worker, who bagged the suckers. (87)

"I don't understand why you can't take off just two days."
She took a deep breath.  "Please come."
"Me and cities, we don't mix."
They both knew this was true.  (97)

Cho made a frustrated noise, like a car grinding its gears.  "This isn't summer camp.  You're going to make enemies no matter what.  It's an occupational hazard.  Besides, who doesn't want a worthy adversary?" (157)

"When you started at Sterling," he said, "you laughed at the banker boys.  Now you're a poster child for that place." (193)

Come on, Camille, how urgent can it really be?...Coming home not isn't an option...Well you'll just have to sit tight. (223)

Jobs were like a religion: the only people who understood were the ones on the inside with you. (271)


Short and Sweet Summary

Sophie Landgraf is a small town girl living in NYC, trying out her wings on Wall Street.  She knows the business and has the smarts, but she's got a lot to learn about saaviness.  Her job takes a toll on many of her personal relationships, and Sophie struggles to find some balance.  However, at the same time she craves balance, she very easily gets lost in the highs of "making the deal."  If she's going to survive Wall Street, she's got to learn to compartmentalize and ride the wave...or drown and go home.

What I Liked

Ethan Pierce - at first when he launched into Sophie heartlessly about her suggestion, I thought, "What a jerk!"  But, it didn't take me long to get past that.  Hemphill cleverly makes sure we know enough about Ethan to humanize him.  Not enough to root for him in any stretch of the imagination, but just enough to "get" him.  

I appreciated Hemphill's dual perspective on Sophie's life choices.  Her father, Will, and even her closest childhood friends couldn't see why it was necessary for Sophie to keep punishing herself (and them) by working at Sterling.  But, even though the work was brutal, Sophie fed on it...even liked it.  She needed the numbers and the reality checks of the business world.  While I cannot even imagine this kind of job (I would be a basketcase), Hemphill reminds us that different people thrive on different things.

Sophie's relationship with Ethan - I can't say much here bc I don't want to spoil one of the major "keep your attention" and "keep you guessing" tactics.  But, I kept my fingers crossed that this relationship would go the way I wanted it to.  I felt if Hemphill decided to go one way with this part of the story, it would completely undermine the bigger story.  Is that vague enough?  I could hug Hemphill for not copping out where this relationship was concerned.

Nancy Cho - straightforward, brutal, but a good friend for Sophie.  

Alternating perspectives - I really like this writing format; I seem to always want to know everything about everybody, and alternating narratives seem to give me just what I need.

What I Didn't Like

Some of the technical language...the aluminum business, smelters, marketing and finance speak, was confusing to me...I sometimes had to just skim past it.  

Sophie's habit of sneaking into offices and looking in drawers freaked me out...my heart pounded each time she did it.  A very weird characteristic indeed for someone who was so intent on succeeding in big business and most of all, not getting fired.  

Will - no offense, Will, but geez, dude, as much as I understood your way of life more than Sophie's, you simply wanted her to be what you wanted her to be...and that's never a good thing.  

Overall Recommendation

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to live in NYC and work in big business, whether you can actually imagine yourself doing just that or not, I think you'll like this book.  Hemphill provides just enough detail about the characters to make you fall for them even if you're not a big city person.  

The Author



Other Stops on the Tour

Monday, November 4th:  Kritter’s Ramblings
Tuesday, November 5th:  Entomology of a Bookworm
Wednesday, November 6th:  Peppermint Ph.D.
Thursday, November 7th:  BookChickDi
Friday, November 8th:  Bibliotica
Monday, November 11th:  The Well Read Redhead
Tuesday, November 12th:  Tiny Library
Wednesday, November 13th:  Staircase Wit
Thursday, November 14th:  Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile
Monday, November 18th:  Luxury Reading
Tuesday, November 19th:  Sarah’s Book Shelves
Wednesday, November 20th:  A Bookish Affair
Thursday, November 21st:  Walking with Nora
Friday, November 22nd:  Classy Cat Books
Monday, November 25th:  Reading Reality
Tuesday, November 26th:  Books and Movies

Friday, November 1, 2013

Banquet of Lies by Michelle Diener - HFVBT


Banquet of Lies by Michelle Diener

Format? paperback
Source? the publisher via Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
**FTC Disclosure - I received a complimentary copy of Banquet of Lies from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  The review below and the opinions therein are my own and offered without bias.  

Why? Historical fiction, a strong female lead, lords and ladies, and a glimpse into the downstairs. 

I was reminded of? "The Aristocats," "Downton Abbey," The Prince and the Pauper, the Maisie Dobbs series

What Now? I'd like to read In a Treacherous Court and The Emperor's Conspiracy by Diener.

Golden Lines

"You make the dishes?"  The woman tapped Gigi on the arm with her fan.  "With the servants?" Her voice was a squeak. (2)

Just like she'd done to his butler, his cook had picked him up like a bottle of champagne and shaken him vigorously, and now, at last back down on his feet, he could only stumble about, ready to explode.
It was a sensation he suddenly craved again. (45)

"I will get the coffee now when I'm at the market, Mr. Edgars, as part of the household shopping.  And you are welcome to tell his lordship all about it.  If Lord Aldridge cannot afford to let his cook drink coffee if she wants to, or if he is so petty as to not allow anyone in this house to drink something he doesn't wish to drink, even though it will not affect him the slightest, then he has hired the wrong cook and I will give him my notice immediately.  (81)

She knew she was being followed.  She'd seen a movement, furtive and quick, out of the corner of her eye, and she didn't try to pretend to herself that it meant nothing.  (121)

She wanted to trust Lord Aldridge, wanted to go to him and confess everything. (181).

A smile and a bit of humor would have undone the damage, but Edgars seemed to have a knack for making things hard on himself. (200).

"My...lord?"  Edgars turned again in the direction of the hall, his whole body trembling.  "I let him in.  Not half an hour ago.  I...He's downstairs." (320)

Short and Sweet Summary

Giselle Barrington's father is murdered, and she must find a way to deliver a politically sensitive message to the right person.  Her father lost his life for the message; the least Giselle can do is complete his mission.  Unfortunately, her father's killer knows of her involvement in her father's affairs and is looking for her.  He wants the message and he wants her dead.  Giselle must hide in the home of Lord Aldridge, pretending to be his French cook while figuring out her next move.

What I Liked

His Edginess - I didn't so much like this character as I liked his presence in the book.  Plus, every time Diener used his name, Edgar, I couldn't help but think of the butler in The Aristocts :P The French phrases as well, reminded me happily of the little kittens singing and talking.  I couldn't help but wonder if Diener had been a Disney fan at some point?

Gigi/Giselle Barrington - I see a series in the making, and I'm sold if that's so.

The budding romance - I'm a snooty reader.  Yes, I admit it.  I'll pass up a book in a hurry if there's bodice ripping on the cover or too much of a hint of passionate swooning in the book summary.  When I first started reading Banquet of Lies, I actually became a little nervous..."Oh, great.  I've unintentionally accepted a romance."  A few pages later, however, the great romance snoot was hooked.  Oy.  Banquet of Lies has just enough believable swooning to make you think back to the early days of romance...when two people feel an attraction, realize there's something there, and fight against it for a bunch of silly reasons.  The romance was deeply embedded within the main plot of the story as well and not rushed at all.  I give in.  I want to read more about Mademoiselle Giselle Barringtong and Lord Jonathan Aldridge.

Status - interesting to note the status among the servants and particularly that of the cook since that position is the one Giselle fills at Aldridge House.  I wonder if all cooks could get away with such "cheekiness" and demands as Gigi and her "foster" father, Georges do.  It makes sense to me...the cook's ability to make or break each day with the quality of sustinance served in the household.  I've just never really thought of it before.

Giselle's boldness and her mistakes - she's a noble born woman...with inherent freedoms not afforded to true servants, so she messes up sometimes.  She slips with her gestures, forgotten titles, demeanor, and her role (place) in the household.  Her mistakes only further reinforce to her the plight of the common born woman, something which she has had no reason to consider before.


What I Didn't Like

Some of the minor characters - Dervish, the men Giselle's father worked with, and even Frobisher got a little confusing at times.  I don't think I really got to know them well enough.  It didn't get in my way of the plot, however, and I don't feel like I missed anything.

Overall Recommendation

If you like a solid, enjoyable piece of historical fiction melded with spying and murder mysteries, pick up Banquet of Lies.

The Author


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VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR SCHEDULE

Monday, October 21
Review at Unabridged Chick
Review & Giveaway at The Maiden’s Court

Tuesday, October 22
Interview & Giveaway at Unabridged Chick

Wednesday, October 23
Review & Giveaway at Luxury Reading

Thursday, October 24
Review & Giveaway at The Lit Bitch
Interview at Linus’s Blanket

Friday, October 25
Review & Giveaway at A Bookish Libraria
Interview at Historical Tapestry

Monday, October 28
Review & Giveaway at Peeking Between the Pages

Tuesday, October 29

Wednesday, October 30
Review at A Bookish Affair
Interview & Giveaway at Oh, for the Hook of a Book!

Thursday, October 31
Review & Giveaway at Confessions of an Avid Reader

Friday, November 1
Review at Peppermint, Ph.D.
Interview & Giveaway at A Bookish Affair




Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Friday's Harbor by Diane Hammond - TLC Book Review


Friday's Harbor by Diane Hammond
HarperCollins 2013

Format? paperback, 325 pgs. 
Source? the publisher via TLC Book Tours
***FTC Disclosure - I received a complimentary copy of Friday's Harbor from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  The review below and the opinions therein are my own and offered without bias.

Why?  Whale rescue? The power of animal/human connection?  Do you really have to ask?

What Now? First thing I'm going to do is watch "Free Willy"...can you believe I've never seen it??  I'm also going to watch the CNN documentary "Blackfish" all in one sitting.  So far, I've only caught snippets.  Then, I want to read Death at Sea World.
After I've gotten enough killer whale info to satisfy me for a while, I'll switch over and read the pre-cursor to Friday's Harbor, Hannah's Dream

Golden Lines

"Is she right?  Is he lazy?"
"He's in an advanced state of starvation."
"Don't they realize?"
"No.  In all fairness, they've never worked with a healthy killer whale, so they don't have anything to compare him with." (31)

And in the absolute quiet of the moment Truman felt a sudden, nearly overwhelming sadness: that there were orphans in the world, tha thtere were those who deserved better than they got, that isolation could be so profound. This alien creature without hands or ears or facial muscles amplified a hundredfold the incredible hubris of enforced captivity.  Maybe in their misguided kindness they had made an appalling mistake. (39)

"There's a ton of money to be made here.  This fish is a star."
"Mammal," Truman said mildly.
"What?"
"He's a mammal, not a fish."
"I don't care if he has wings and can fly.  All I know is, when I went to Rotary yesterday, people were jumping all over me about when we plan to open up.  Money, money, money..." (74)

"For one thing, animal psychics are frauds - there's no such thing. For another thing, Friday would be dead inside a week if he were released back to the wild.  He's used to being hand-fed dead fish, not having to figure out where the schools of fish are today and tomorrow.  He's immune suppressed, so he'd pick up the first infection he came across.  And the North Atlantic is a big, big place - the odds of him finding his pod, or of them finding him, are remote.  Reality bites." (98)

Friday was the most easygoing killer whale Gabriel had ever worked with.  Still, he did have a temper, which he lost early one morning during his first weeks at the zoo over a handful of squid he was offered for the first time.  While Gabriel and Neva watched, he spit out the squid and then swam around the perimeter of the pool slapping his tail flukes on the water in outrage. (128)

He swam past the old woman but then stopped and circled back until he was only inches away from her.  They regarded one another, the whale and the woman; their eyes locked and held.  Tears ran down her thin cheeks in the chilly air of the gallery. (132)

The evening news was being written at that very moment, based on crazy conclusions invented by people lacking even an iota of factual information, and there was no time to set them all straight. (239)

He sang, whistled, clicked, and trilled at the calf in a long and constant song.  And the calf sang back. (315)


Short and Sweet Summary

Truman Levy, new director of the Max L. Biedelman Zoo, in Bladenham, Washington takes on an aging killer whale who is slowly dying in his current home in Bogata.  With the help of professional keeper and trainer Gabriel Jump, Truman and his staff, along with his benefactor aunt, Ivy Levy, learn the ropes of killer whale care.  They also end up having to fight political activist groups who think they know what's best for Friday.   At the center of it all is Friday, the incredibly intelligent, miraculous mammal, through whom they all learn more about themselves as well as the animal himself.  

What I Liked

Ivy Levy - all my life I've dreamed of being Ivy Levy, with so much money that I could build a huge home with lots of land and homes, vet care, food, toys, etc. for all the animals in the world who didn't have a home.  In a perfect world, right?  

Gabriel - the collector and then rescuer.  Truth and reality are his focus...whether or not everyone around him likes it or not.  He's an expert and allowed to do his job.  His knowledge is endless, but when he is stumped he doesn't hesitate to call on other expert friends for collaboration.  I've seen the portion of "Blackfish" where the whale calfs are caught, but I've also seen the fisherman's remorse after the task is complete.  Unlike Ivy, I think I could work something out where Gabriel is concerned.

All the ins, outs, and all abouts, of killer whale behavior, training, characteristics, personality, and vet medicine.  So interesting!!  Several times I teared up at the sheer wonder of this creature.

Truman Levy - I could be Truman...I really could.  I'm not a lawyer, and I don't have a rich aunt, but I do sometimes get confused about the politics that are going on around me.  I say the wrong thing sometimes in defense of what I believe, and I sure as heck make mistakes.  I try very hard to surround myself with good people..and I let them do their jobs.  Now, if I could only find a rich aunt :p

Libertine - oh to have a life where you feel what animals feel.  Selfishly, I wouldn't want it because how else could you live your life if you did?  Libertine endured a lot for Friday's sake, physically, mentally, financially, and every other way you can think of.  She also somehow psychoanalyzed Julio Iglesias, and that, in itself, was a miracle.  

What I Didn't Like

I'm already traumatized by the idea of animals in captivity.  So, the entire notion of this book traumatized me from the beginning...True, Friday was being rescued, but he was being taken from one bowl of water to another.  I do not, however, subscribe to the "death is better than captivity" camp's theory.  

Julio Iglesias - the Chihuahua...I'm an animal lover.  But, even I draw the line with an animal that poos and pees in my house.  Especially one who's doing it out of spite.  Ivy kept him a lot longer than I would have.  He did make me laugh from time to time though...I could just see his haughty expressions and him marching around as if he owned the place.  

What some groups are willing to do in the name of "death is better than captivity" makes just about as much sense as bombing abortion clinics to save lives.  Really?

Overall Recommendation

If you're an animal lover, don't miss this one.  If you care anything about the political discussions behind conservation and capture, you need to read this book.  You may find that you're not as one sided as you thought.  In Friday's Harbor, Hammond doesn't try to change your mind; she just presents a complete story for you to consider.  

The Author



Other Stops on the Tour

Wednesday, October 16th: Tiffany’s Bookshelf
Thursday, October 17th: Book Club Classics!
Monday, October 21st: Library of Clean Reads
Wednesday, October 23rd: Book-a-licious Mama
Tuesday, October 29th: Ageless Pages Reviews
Wednesday, October 30th: Peppermint PhD
Tuesday, November 5th: As I turn the pages
Friday, November 8th: Not in Jersey
Thursday, November 7th: The Book Wheel
Thursday, November 14th: Ace and Hoser Blook