300

Amazon.com

An emperor amasses an army of hundreds of thousands, drawn from two continents, to invade a third continent and conquer a tiny, divided nation. Only a few hundred warriors stand against them. Yet the tiny nation is saved. It sounds like the plot of a preposterous fantasy novel. It is historical fact. In 481-480 B.C., King Xerxes of Persia raised forces in Asia and Africa and invaded Greece with an army so huge that it "drank rivers dry." Then they entered the mountain pass of Thermopylae and encountered 300 determined soldiers from Sparta....

Writer-artist Frank Miller and colorist Lynn Varley retell the battle of Thermopylae in the exciting and moving graphic novel 300. They focus on King Leonidas, the young foot soldier Stelios, and the storyteller Dilios to highlight the Spartans' awe-inspiring toughness and valor. Miller and Varley's art is terrific, as always; the combat scenes are especially powerful. And Miller's writing is his best in years. Read it.

Do not, however, read 300 expecting a strictly accurate history. The Phocians did not "scatter," as Miller describes. His Spartans are mildly homophobic, which is goofy in such a gay society. Miller doesn't say how many Greeks remained for the climactic battle--you'd think 300 Spartans and maybe a dozen others, when there were between 700 and 1,100 Greeks. Herodotus's Histories does not identify the traitor Ephialtes as ugly and hunchbacked, or even as Spartan. 300 establishes a believable connection between Ephialtes's affliction and behavior, but his monstrous appearance, King Xerxes's effeminacy, and the Persians' inexplicable pierced-GenX-African looks make for an eyebrow-raising choice of villain imagery. Nonetheless, 300 is a brilliant dramatization.

For the full story of the failed invasion, read Herodotus's Histories or, for a concise, graphic-novel retelling, Larry Gonick's great Cartoon History of the Universe: Volumes 1-7, From the Big Bang to Alexander the Great. For a lighthearted look at post-invasion Athens and a very young Alexander the Great, check out William Messner-Loebs and Sam Kieth's witty and gorgeous graphic novels, Epicurus the Sage Vol. I and Vol. II. --Cynthia Ward

Book Description

300 is a story of war and defiance as only Frank Miller can tell. Featuring the watercolor talents of painter Lynn Varley, 300 marks the first collaboration for these two creators since 1990's Elektra Lives Again. The five-part series is collected into a beautiful, 88-page hardcover volume, with each two-page spread from the comic presented as it was originally intended - as a single undivided page, greatly enhancing the graphic and narrative power of this immortal tale of heroic sacrifice. Make sure to check out the online preview of 300 here. And watch for news of this soon to be made major motion picture.

Customer Reviews:

a must have.......2007-09-19

a must have for 300 fans, definitely alot cheaper than Barnes&noble or borders. i was a little disappointed because one of the corners was a little bent from bouncing around in the box, and the pages didn't sit straight on the book when u looked at it sideways, as if humidity had gotten to it, or something, but aside from that it was a good buy.

way better than i was expecting.......2007-09-15

the artwork was awesome in that frank miller sort of way. also the story was just way better than i expected. all in all it was a great book.

A MUST HAVE.......2007-09-10

This is the ultimate 300 experience. This book is a must have for anyone who loves comic books.

Great concept on a legendary battle.......2007-09-05

What can I say, it's Frank Miller's epic opus. I believe every other review has covered the nuances of this graphic novel. I actually read it late in the game, having vaguely heard of it before but not actually laying hands on the book until after the movie came out. Both the movie and the book prompted me to revisit the historical accounts of the Spartans' valiant struggle against overwhelming odds. For some reason, Thermopylae reminds me of JFK - I believe he quoted the famous epitaph in one of his speeches. If 300 inspires young and old to read up on history because of the valor of its protagonists, it will have served its purpose.

Graphic SF Reader.......2007-09-03

A retelling of the battle of Thermopylae. Miller is taking the style that it appears he now works in, a la Sin City, and applied it to this historical recreation. No detailed wedding tackle for those hoping for such.

A story of the uncompromising military attitude (and xenophobia, of course) that leads to a last stand.

Average customer rating:

Excellent book but..
Water for Elephants
Glad I didn't turn it down
Excellent story; expertly told
Magnificent read

Water for Elephants: A Novel
Sara Gruen
Manufacturer: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1565124995

Amazon.com

Jacob Jankowski says: "I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other." At the beginning of Water for Elephants, he is living out his days in a nursing home, hating every second of it. His life wasn't always like this, however, because Jacob ran away and joined the circus when he was twenty-one. It wasn't a romantic, carefree decision, to be sure. His parents were killed in an auto accident one week before he was to sit for his veterinary medicine exams at Cornell. He buried his parents, learned that they left him nothing because they had mortgaged everything to pay his tuition, returned to school, went to the exams, and didn't write a single word. He walked out without completing the test and wound up on a circus train. The circus he joins, in Depression-era America, is second-rate at best. With Ringling Brothers as the standard, Benzini Brothers is far down the scale and pale by comparison.

Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob's life with this circus. Sara Gruen spares no detail in chronicling the squalid, filthy, brutish circumstances in which he finds himself. The animals are mangy, underfed or fed rotten food, and abused. Jacob, once it becomes known that he has veterinary skills, is put in charge of the "menagerie" and all its ills. Uncle Al, the circus impresario, is a self-serving, venal creep who slaps people around because he can. August, the animal trainer, is a certified paranoid schizophrenic whose occasional flights into madness and brutality often have Jacob as their object. Jacob is the only person in the book who has a handle on a moral compass and as his reward he spends most of the novel beaten, broken, concussed, bleeding, swollen and hungover. He is the self-appointed Protector of the Downtrodden, and... he falls in love with Marlena, crazy August's wife. Not his best idea.

The most interesting aspect of the book is all the circus lore that Gruen has so carefully researched. She has all the right vocabulary: grifters, roustabouts, workers, cooch tent, rubes, First of May, what the band plays when there's trouble, Jamaican ginger paralysis, life on a circus train, set-up and take-down, being run out of town by the "revenooers" or the cops, and losing all your hooch. There is one glorious passage about Marlena and Rosie, the bull elephant, that truly evokes the magic a circus can create. It is easy to see Marlena's and Rosie's pink sequins under the Big Top and to imagine their perfect choreography as they perform unbelievable stunts. The crowd loves it--and so will the reader. The ending is absolutely ludicrous and really quite lovely. --Valerie Ryan

Book Description

Though he may not speak of them, the memories still dwell inside Jacob Jankowski's ninety-something-year-old mind. Memories of himself as a young man, tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Memories of a world filled with freaks and clowns, with wonder and pain and anger and passion; a world with its own narrow, irrational rules, its own way of life, and its own way of death. The world of the circus: to Jacob it was both salvation and a living hell.
Jacob was there because his luck had run out—orphaned and penniless, he had no direction until he landed on this locomotive "ship of fools." It was the early part of the Great Depression, and everyone in this third-rate circus was lucky to have any job at all. Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, was there because she fell in love with the wrong man, a handsome circus boss with a wide mean streak. And Rosie the elephant was there because she was the great gray hope, the new act that was going to be the salvation of the circus; the only problem was, Rosie didn't have an act—in fact, she couldn't even follow instructions. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.
Surprising, poignant, and funny, Water for Elephants is that rare novel with a story so engrossing, one is reluctant to put it down; with characters so engaging, they continue to live long after the last page has been turned; with a world built of wonder, a world so real, one starts to breathe its air.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book but.........2007-10-10

First off, the imagery in this book is amazing. The pictures painted by words are so vivid that I felt like I was watching the action on screen.

The story is set in the 1930s and follows Jacob Jankowski, a vetrinary school dropout, and the few months he spends working for a circus (Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show On Earth). Jacob is exposed to the harsh lifestyle of a travelling circus. He meets Marlena, who is a performer, and falls in love. The only problem is that she is already married to August, the equestrian director (who hired Jacob in the first place).

The central element of the book however, is the circus itself. The reader gets a look into the inner workings of show, the characters that work for it and this is done in a very dextrous way. Gruen makes the reader understand the technicalities of circus terminology and life without spelling out definitions. Her insight into the characters (with a few exceptions) is also very interesting. I found the beginning part of the book fascinating as the 90 or 93 year old Jankowski reflects on how things change with age.

The criticism I have is that certain charcters are somewhat faceless. I found this to be true of Marlena. This makes her relationship with Jacob seem contrived and their interactions cliched. The dialogue between them towards the end is predictable. Also, the character of August, I felt, could have been better developed.

Overall, this is a fine book and I had fun reading it.

Water for Elephants.......2007-10-09

This book is a good read. It is interesting on several levels--the reflections and remembrances of an old man; life in an assisted living facility; treatment of the elderly; real life reflections of life in a circus during the depression. For those who love the circus, it brings the behind the scenes events of a circus to life and makes us remember the times when the circus came rolling into town on a train, with the requisite circus parade of clowns, elephants,lions, etc. Sara Gruen's a good story teller.

Glad I didn't turn it down.......2007-10-09

I have seen this book on the best seller list for a long time now. I would read the reviews here on amazon, pick it up in the bookstore only to put it down again, thinking this just isn't my type of book. A few weeks ago I was talking with a collegue about recent books we have read. She told me she just finished Water for Elephants. Usually we like the same sort of books, so I had to ask her what she thought, I told her I just never bought it because it seemed so not interesting. She encouraged me to read it, she said it was wonderful.

Well, she was right! It was amazing. It read like a true story, and I am sure the author did her research. This book really made you feel for the main character, in current time and his past with the circus. It was sad at times, but also funny and thoughtful. I read it in less than a week and it was one of those books that although you coudn't wait to see what happened, you didn't want it to end.

Excellent story; expertly told.......2007-10-09

Water for Elephants is a compelling story told from the memory of a ninety-one (or ninety-three)year-old man named Jacob Jankowski. The story begins as Jacob prepares to sit for his veterinary exams at Cornell University. He receives word that his parents have been killed in a car accident and things go downhill from there. He ends up as part of a circus and the next three-and-a-half months are mostly a living hell, except for Marlena.

The story goes back and forth between the present time in the "assisted-living" home where Jacob resides and his memories of the past. His children/grandchildren/great grandchildren take turns visiting him, but first-born son, Simon, misses the most important day of all. In the end, this misstep creates for Jacob, and the reader, a most satisfying end to a moving and heartwarming life story. (A bonus in this book is what the reader learns about circus life in the early part of the 20th century, most of which is pretty nasty.)

As I care for my aged mother in her home, I am very grateful that we have been able to keep her here. This book provides a perspective from the viewpoint of the very elderly, who, while not as quick on all fronts as they once were, are still thinking, feeling beings.

Carolyn Rowe Hill

Magnificent read.......2007-10-09

The title of this book attracted me; the cover blurb sounded good; and who can resist an elephant as a character in an adult book? So even though I was not famliar with the author, I bought this book, and oh how glad I am that I did. What a magnificent read! The characters are delightful. The author's tone and pacing are fantastic as she seamlessly moves you from the present to the past, never leaving you wanting at the end of either time period as she moves her story relentlessly forward. At the end of this book I had a strange and wonderful reaction. I actually hugged it to me and just sat there for a minute or so thinking about how good I felt and wondering what the main character might be doing now.

Average customer rating:

It makes me want to burn my bra!
A Beautiful Story!
Page turner!
Book Club selection - Wonderful and rich
Great Read for Women of All Cultures

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
Lisa See
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Friendship | Women's Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Suite Francaise

ASIN: 0812968069
Release Date: 2006-02-21

Book Description

In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, “old same,” in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she’s painted a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

Download Description

Lisa See is the author of Flower Net (an Edgar Award nominee), The Interior, and Dragon Bones, as well as the critically acclaimed memoir On Gold Mountain. The Organization of Chinese American Women named her the 2001 National Woman of the Year. She lives in Los Angeles.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

It makes me want to burn my bra!.......2007-10-09

I thought this book was very well written and the story was very interesting. However, it doesn't change the fact that it infuriated me to no end. I am so thankful I am an American woman, even a Western woman, where women are valued and important to society. It makes me sick to think how little value women have and that they see themselves that way, no better than a slave. And then whent these young girls move into their new home, their mother-in-laws treat them so abominably, even though they had gone through the same things. Women become subservient in every possible way, mentally, emotionally, and of course, physically because of that accursed foot-binding tradition. YUCK! This type of culture is just so alien to me. Wow! What a great story, though. It really got me thinking.

A Beautiful Story!.......2007-10-08

This book was effectively able to intertwine a story about lifelong friendship between two women and many historical details from Chinese culture such as food binding and the role of women in society. I loved how the author was able to look back on her life and point out her flaws, and the strengths of her friend. I highly recommend this book!

Page turner!.......2007-10-06

This book will make you both sad and happy and both love and hate the characters at the same time. Very interesting to learn about chinese traditions of arranged marriage and wrapped feet. I couldn't put it down.

Book Club selection - Wonderful and rich.......2007-10-06

I was put off by this book being another narrative. It seems like that's all I've read in the last few weeks. But it was a wonderful story, so intricate and filled with rich details. I saw some critisim about the lack of details abut the rest of their lives, like how they gave birth. but that kind of detail is not needed here. The lives of these women are so very interesting to me. I really liked this book. it had a valuable lesson at the end as well. Ok and the footbinding was awful but integral to the story.

Great Read for Women of All Cultures.......2007-10-05

Women of any culture can identify with the complicated and intimate relationships between two female friends. I highly recommend this book to all women. Also an interesting insight into nineteenth century rural China.

Average customer rating:

Not Up to the Hype
Enjoyable and Interesting
A magnificent, tragic fragment.
A taste of things to come
Remember - Two Novellas

Suite Française
Irene Nemirovsky
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1400044731
Release Date: 2006-04-11

Book Description

By the early l940s, when Ukrainian-born Irène Némirovsky began working on what would become Suite Française—the first two parts of a planned five-part novel—she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz: a month later she was dead at the age of thirty-nine. Two years earlier, living in a small village in central France—where she, her husband, and their two small daughters had fled in a vain attempt to elude the Nazis —she’d begun her novel, a luminous portrayal of a human drama in which she herself would become a victim. When she was arrested, she had completed two parts of the epic, the handwritten manuscripts of which were hidden in a suitcase that her daughters would take with them into hiding and eventually into freedom. Sixty-four years later, at long last, we can read Némirovsky’s literary masterpiece

The first part, “A Storm in June,” opens in the chaos of the massive 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion during which several families and individuals are thrown together under circumstances beyond their control. They share nothing but the harsh demands of survival—some trying to maintain lives of privilege, others struggling simply to preserve their lives—but soon, all together, they will be forced to face the awful exigencies of physical and emotional displacement, and the annihilation of the world they know. In the second part, “Dolce,” we enter the increasingly complex life of a German-occupied provincial village. Coexisting uneasily with the soldiers billeted among them, the villagers—from aristocrats to shopkeepers to peasants—cope as best they can. Some choose resistance, others collaboration, and as their community is transformed by these acts, the lives of these these men and women reveal nothing less than the very essence of humanity.

Suite Française is a singularly piercing evocation—at once subtle and severe, deeply compassionate and fiercely ironic—of life and death in occupied France, and a brilliant, profoundly moving work of art.

Download Description

Irène Némirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903 into a wealthy banking family and emigrated to France during the Russian Revolution. After attending the Sorbonne, she began to write and swiftly achieved success with her first novel, David Golder, which was followed by The Ball, The Flies of Autumn, Dogs and Wolves and The Courilof Affair. She died in 1942.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Not Up to the Hype.......2007-10-06

I really wanted to like this book. I read it after reading Vasily Grossman's LIFE AND FATE, a masterpiece of WW2 literature if there ever was one. And maybe it was the juxtaposition of that book with this that caused my disappointment. Where Grossman's book at 800 pages is taut and serious throughout, Nemirovsky's seems trivial by comparision. Had it been published soon after it was written, it would have been considered an interesting popular novel containing interesting observations of occupied France but ultimately lightweight in its' often pedestrian storyline and execution. It often reads like a mass paperback romance set within the larger context of the war, and too often devolves into hackneyed popular novel tropes - the cowardess and duplicities of the moneyed classes set against the native nobility of the poor, love amidst the ruins of war etc.

Interesting light reading, but a "classic?" Sorry.

Enjoyable and Interesting.......2007-10-05

A really enjoyable read and extremely interesting. It was such a good book! Highly recommend. The ending leaves you trailing though...

A magnificent, tragic fragment........2007-09-29

Irene Nemirovsky's "Suite Francaise" will stand with "The Diary of Anne Frank" as one of the most poignant literary monuments of World War II and the insanity of the Holocaust. But whereas Anne Frank was a young girl whose hopes and dreams ended forever at Belsen, Irene Nemirovsky was a novelist of enormous talent who would have been recognized as one of the greatest European writers of the 20th century had her life not been extinguished at Auschwitz. Considering all she suffered during the war, and how she was murdered in the very middle of it, it is amazing that Nemrovsky completed as much of it as she did, and that what she completed is of such a high order. "Suite Francaise" consists of the first two parts of a projected five-part novel depicting the fall of France to the Nazis, the panicked flight of Parisians and the return to something vaguely resembling normalcy under German military rule. The first section, "Storm in June," gives readers a panoramic view of several groups of fleeing Parisians, representing every class of society and every conceivable moral and mental attitude; the second, "Dolce," depicts life in a French village under the Germans, bringing back some of the characters from the first book and making it plain that Nemirovsky planned to reintroduce more of them in the following three books. Superbly translated by Sandra Smith, "Suite Francaise" is a swift and graceful read, depicting the characters and action with breathtaking clarity and excitement. Many of the characters are presented only in a few sentences, yet all live and breathe with total realism. What is really astonishing about "Suite Francaise," however, is Nemirovsky's authorial impartiality and clear-eyed sympathy for all her characters. There are no saints and no monsters in Nemirovsky's universe, just people--some more likable than others, but even the most despicable among them are given sharp moments of deep and moving humanity. Even the Germans are human--they have their faults, but also their virtues. To be able to write such panoramic fiction in the midst of war, with such a detached and pragmatic yet sympathetic eye, is truly amazing, even more so from an author who rightly feared she would be arrested and deported to the death camps at any moment. A Russian-Jewish emigree to France who moved in the highest literary and societal circles, Nemirovsky was an exceptionally keen observer of the French class system and how it warps individuals, in that sense (and in others) the equal of Balzac, Flaubert and Proust. The argument in Chapter 16 of "Dolce" between the snobbish, sickly-sentimental Vicomtesse de Montmort and the brutish peasant Benoit Sabarie stands out: both are sympathetic, as people and as representatives of their social classes, and both are utterly despicable. Nemirovsky sums up their fight neatly: "What separates or unites people is not their language, their laws, their customs, their principles, but the way they hold a salad fork." This argument has repercussions that promise to ripple across the rest of the story, except that Nemirovsky, alas, never had a chance to show us how. Appendices to the book include Nemirovsky's copious notes on how she planned to continue the story; correspondence to, from, and about her; and the preface to the French addition, included as an afterword here, which tells the poignant story of Nemirovsky's life and death, and of how Nemirovsky's daughter discovered the manuscript of "Suite Francaise" more than sixty years after her mother's death. "Suite Francaise" is a magnificent fragment and an eternal testimonial to the genius of its author. We can only mourn that the book, like her life, will remain unfinished.

A taste of things to come.......2007-09-26

It's a known fact that this work has gotten much attention due to the circumstances that surrounded Irene Nemirovsky's life. Left in a suitcase as she attempted flight, the author found her demise at the hands of the Nazis before this manuscript could be published.

Who knows what she might have added or excluded or expanded? And I could not help but think this as I read along.

There are two novellas under one umbrella here--depicting day in the life scenes of how things were in these troublesome times. I certainly found this to be gratifying reading, but it did not take me out of myself in that complete way I enjoy when I read truly remarkable fiction.

Will recommend, but for a story that brought me to that special place of compelling fiction, I recommend the lesser-known, SIM0N LAZARUS, a book more should know about.

Remember - Two Novellas.......2007-09-24

It must be remembered that this one book consists of two novellas. With the exception of minor mentions in the second book of a few characters from the first, there is nothing in common between the two. Thus, they really should be evaluated as two books.

The first was about Parisians fleeing Paris before the German occupation in June, 1940. Most are from the upper class and they are forced to "mix" with the lower classes. Almost all the characters are unlikeable and the characterizations almost seem to be caricatures of snooty Frenchmen and women. It is amazing that a French author would draw such scathing portraits.

Although the writing is good, I found the pacing extremely slow and tedious. There was a relentless litany of whining and complaining without corresponding renderings of real suffering. At one point I thought the tedium was by design, to show the relentless hardship. If that were the purpose, it did not work. The first book was simply over-written, slow and tedious. There really was no plot. It consisted of mere accounts of the plight of some atypical Parisian refugees.

The second book, "Dolce" was much much better. I wish I had not been jaded by the first novella. It was the account of the occupation by the Germans of a small rural town. It had tensions between farmers and town people, rich and poor (rich were still lambasted mercilessly), sympathizers and patriots and, best of all, the internal tension of a French woman forced to billet a German officer. This was the heart of Dolce. The woman's husband is a prisoner of war. Despite that, she realizes she is falling love with the German officer and he with her. The plot rotates around this tension and events that effect it.

In sum, I wish I had skipped the first novella but enjoyed the second. Thus, the average to 3 star rating.

The Quilter's Homecoming: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel (Elm Creek Quilts Novels)

Average customer rating:

She did it again!
The Quilter's Homecoming: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel
The Quilters Homecoming
The Quilter's Homecoming
Still a good read

The Quilter's Homecoming: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel (Elm Creek Quilts Novels)
Jennifer Chiaverini
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0743260228

Book Description

A Roaring Twenties adventure unfolds in Jennifer Chiaverini's latest bestselling Elm Creek Quilts novel, another in "a series that neatly stitches together social drama and the art of quilting" (Library Journal).

Newly wed in a festive yet poignant ceremony at Elm Creek Manor, bride Elizabeth Nelson takes leave of her ancestral Pennsylvania home. Setting off with her husband, Henry, on the adventure of a lifetime, Elizabeth packs the couple's trunk with more than the wedding quilts she envisions them dreaming beneath every night of their married lives. They are landowners who hold the deed to Triumph Ranch, 120 acres of prime California soil located in the Arboles Valley, north of Los Angeles.

"Triumph Ranch," says Mae, a traveling companion whom Elizabeth has let in on the promise of the Nelsons' bright future. "That sounds like a sure thing." But in a cruel reversal of fortune, the Nelsons arrive to the news that they've been had, and they are left suddenly, irrevocably penniless.

They are hired as hands at the farm they thought they owned, and Henry struggles mightily with his pride. Yet clever, feisty Elizabeth -- drawing on her share of the Bergstrom women's inherent economy and resilience -- vows to defy fate through sheer force of will. As her life intertwines with Rosa Diaz Barclay, native to the Arboles Valley and a fellow quilter, their blossoming friendship sheds light on many secrets that have kept each of them and their families from their rightful homes.

In the cabin where Henry and Elizabeth are living on Triumph Ranch, Elizabeth discovers quilts belonging to Rosa's mother, and in their exquisite patterns recognizes a misplaced legacy of love, land, and family. But her newfound understanding of the burden of loss that Rosa shares with the mysterious Lars Jorgensen places her in mortal danger. Only by stitching the rift between the past and the future can the inhabitants of Triumph Ranch hope to live in peace alongside history.

Customer Reviews:

She did it again!.......2007-09-13

Ms Chiaverini did it again!! This newest book is just as wonderful as the past books in this series have been! When I started reading it, I was a bit disappointed that it was only set in the past, but once I got into to reading that went away quickly! This is a 'don't want to put it down' book, highly recommended.

The Quilter's Homecoming: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel.......2007-08-28

Jennifer has done it again: another novel of one of my favorite quilt series and had me burning the midnight lamp to finish this well written story about some great characters. Can't wait for the next episode!

The Quilters Homecoming.......2007-08-17

I read all ten of her books in the Elm Creek Quilters series and they were all wonderful. She follows "quilting" families back and forth as the country developed, the hardships they encountered, up to the present day. Occasionally the books jumped around a little from generation to generation, but I was able to catch up. Being a quilter myself, I was interested in her vast knowledge and explanations of quilting. This would be a wonderful series to give to a quilter as a gift.

The Quilter's Homecoming.......2007-08-14

After reading all the other books in the "Elm Creek Quilters" series, and hearing so much about Elizabeth,it was great to read a book that told about her and Henry's adventurous beginnings in California. Jennifer Chiaverini's gift for spinning a tale peaked in this novel as she unfolded the events of Henry and Elizabeth's cross-country trip and the dreams they shared, along with the trials and disappointments. Things did not go as they had hoped and planned, but all things worked together for good.

Still a good read.......2007-08-04

Would really rate it about 3.5 stars- I enjoyed it but it's not my favorite. I prefer the ones in the series that are more about the main core of characters. I have read the other books but didn't actually recall Elizabeth being mentioned. Still, the way Chiaverini weaves quilting throughout her stories is always clever and crafty- definitely worth reading.

Average customer rating:

Don't Take This Book to Bed With You!
Too many crazy people in the attic... (contains spoliers)
Several Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Storytelling At It's Best!
Loved It !

The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel
Diane Setterfield
Manufacturer: Atria
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0743298020

Amazon.com

Settle down to enjoy a rousing good ghost story with Diane Setterfield's debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale. Setterfield has rejuvenated the genre with this closely plotted, clever foray into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths. She never cheats by pulling a rabbit out of a hat; this atmospheric story hangs together perfectly.

There are two heroines here: Vida Winter, a famous author, whose life story is coming to an end, and Margaret Lea, a young, unworldly, bookish girl who is a bookseller in her father's shop. Vida has been confounding her biographers and fans for years by giving everybody a different version of her life, each time swearing it's the truth. Because of a biography that Margaret has written about brothers, Vida chooses Margaret to tell her story, all of it, for the first time. At their initial meeting, the conversation begins:

"You have given nineteen different versions of your life story to journalists in the last two years alone."

She [Vida] shrugged. "It's my profession. I'm a storyteller."

"I am a biographer, I work with facts."

The game is afoot and Margaret must spend some time sorting out whether or not Vida is actually ready to tell the whole truth. There is more here of Margaret discovering than of Vida cooperating wholeheartedly, but that is part of Vida's plan.

Margaret has a story of her own: she was one of conjoined twins and her sister died so that Margaret could live. She feels an otherworldly aura sometimes or a yearning for a part of her that is forever missing. Vida's story involves two wild girls--feral twins (is she one of them?)--who would have been better off being suckled by wolves. Instead, their mother and uncle, involved in things too unsavory to contemplate, combine to neglect them woefully. There's also a governess, a Doctor, a kindly housekeeper, a gardener, and another presence--a very strange presence--which Margaret perceives as a ghost at first. Making obeisance to other great ghost stories, there is a deadly fire, a beautiful old house gone to ruin, and always that presence....

The transformative power of truth informs the lives of both women by story's end, and The Thirteenth Tale is finally and convincingly told. --Valerie Ryan

Book Description

When Margaret Lea opened the door to the past, what she confronted was her destiny.

All children mythologize their birth...So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist.

The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself -- all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain. Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter's story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission.

As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized. It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire.

Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling but remains suspicious of the author's sincerity. She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

The Thirteenth Tale is a love letter to reading, a book for the feral reader in all of us, a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and that we loved as children. Diane Setterfield will keep you guessing, make you wonder, move you to tears and laughter and, in the end, deposit you breathless yet satisfied back upon the shore of your everyday life.

Customer Reviews:

Don't Take This Book to Bed With You!.......2007-10-09

It starts out well. Our heroine, Margaret, is the daughter of a dealer in old and rare books, the kind that can support the family on a handful of special sales per year. She has worked with her quietly doting father from earliest childhood, learning to love both their trade and the many books upon their shelves. Then, on a day like any other, she receives a summons from the most published, and yet personally unknown, author in England. Vida Winters, known for telling a new and different scenario to reporters whenever asked about her past, has decided to finally tell the true story of her life to someone, and she has chosen Margaret.

Leaving the shop, her agoraphobic and distant mother, and her beloved books, Margaret takes with her a ream of paper, twelve shiny red pencils, and the discovered secret that her parents think is safely sealed away in a tin under the bed.

Miss Winters' story, she says, must be told in its proper order, without interruption by questions, with no looking ahead. And she must tell it before the wolf, eating her from the inside, finishes her storytelling forever. Margaret's plan to decline the job suddenly is overwhelmed by the hints of love, loss, tragedy, and deranged secrets.

The daily sessions of story-telling begin with the loss of a mother, the depression of a father, and the rearing of the product of their union. And then the story begins to darken.

Ms. Setterfield creates, with a masterful use of vocabulary and phrasing, a virtual "train wreck" of events. As the reader watches the engine approach, an inner sense of disaster perceives that the trestle ahead is weak. One by one the cars of the train follow along, swaying and groaning with the stress, starting to tumble into the abyss. Surely the train will stop and the last few cars, at least, will remain in safety. Surely the disaster cannot become worse....

Raised in a house with a reclusive uncle, a housekeeper with dementia, and a taciturn gardener, young Vida suddenly finds herself in charge of the comings and goings of all the residents of the lonely estate, responsible for their needs and for keeping anyone living in the village from intruding on their lair lest they find out their gruesome secrets.

When it seems impossible for any good ending (happy is perhaps too strong a word here), Ms. Setterfield snatches real life away from the horrors of the fire and the insanity, and carefully wraps up all the stories in a satisfactory manner. Whew!

A good, and compelling, read, The Thirteenth Tale will hold your attention and require you to continue to the very end.

Just don't take this book to bed with you.

Too many crazy people in the attic... (contains spoliers).......2007-10-05

The Thirteenth tale is a nice pseudo-gothic novel, inspired by classic English Victorian novels. It has all the mandatory characters and events, and in abundance. In place of one crazy wife in the attic, Ms. Setterfiled generously provides us with several generations of a mad family. There are abandoned children, mixed up twins, a fire and a ghost. The plot is quite engaging though hard to believe. The characters are poorly developed one-dimensional figures; the flow of events is just superficially glued together, leaving loose ends and blank gaps here and there.

The story of Vida Winter was rather a disappointment, after the first dozen of pages that had promised some dark story about a bookish girl in the world of old dusty books, diaries of dead people and forgotten pages. I wish I read about this one. Then I wouldn't have had all these silly questions that kept me from enjoying the book: why everybody would go nuts about the childhood of a popular writer, meaning the events that happened before she even started to write? How come a child lives in a family (though a nuts family but anyway) and doesn't have a name? Why did Vida's mother abandon her? Why did Vida love retarded Emmeline so much, that chose her over the boy she liked? If Emmeline and Adeline were so different, why was it impossible to tell one from another? Why was it such a bad idea to separate the twins?...

Several Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.......2007-10-02

This book is overrated. The best thing about it, several references to fairy tales, ended an eighth of the way in: (p 34) "a single lupine exhalation could reduce it to rubble;" (p 40) "[the bed] was so lavishly covered with cushions that there could be any number of peas under the mattress and I would not know it...;" (p 47) "I have cried wolf too often." After an interminably long time, when the contents of the Thirteenth Tale was finally revealed, all I could do was resent the fact that Vida Winter insisted on telling the story in such a painstakingly slow manner (p 52) "beginning at the beginning, continuing with the middle, and with the end at the end. Everything in its proper place. No cheating. No looking ahead. No questions." The result being that readers were forced to trudge through the hundreds of pages of nonsense that made up the story of her unlikely life (which appears to include a major theme from the novel Middlesex and several characters who would have fit right in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest). The who's who of the family members was a boring lesson in inequalities, and the mental states of several characters only served to confirm why familial relationships are not generally allowed to stray into the forbidden zone. Far from the end, I was tired of learning the details about the reclusive writer's ultra-dysfunctional family members and their pitiable but uninterestingly messed up lives. Better: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Jane Eyre, The Woman in White, The Turn of the Screw, The Wings of the Dove, etc.

Storytelling At It's Best!.......2007-09-29

I've read so many wonderful books by first time novelists this year, and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield will certainly join the ranks of Audrey Niffenegger and Elizabeth Kostova. This is another one of those unread treasures that has been sitting on my shelf and it makes me wonder what other visionary treats lie there in waiting.

The Thirteenth Tale is a prime example of storytelling at it's top form. Margaret Lea is a young woman who works at her father's bookshop which specializes in rare and antiquarian books. She's been surrounded by books throughout her life and has grown comfortable with the classics such as Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, The Woman in White, etc. and has shied away from more contemporary literature. That is, until she is summonsed by Vida Winter, a top selling novelist with a mysterious past who has requested that Margaret record the story of her life. Margaret is a bit leary of the commission, but accepts and finds that she must face her own ghosts while recording the ghosts of Ms. Winter's past - a past that reveals that the truth is often stranger than fiction.

There are so many things that I loved about this book. The characters are wonderful. Vida Winter is someone that I wish truly existed just so that I could sit in her library in front of her fireplace and listen to her tell me her stories. But of course, the wonderful Diane Setterfield, who wrote Vida Winter's character does exist ;) The storytelling aspect of this novel was just perfect. There wasn't a single moment in the novel when I was bored. There's constantly a hook to grab you and the story is always appealing.

I haven't read Daniel Wallace's book, Big Fish, but much of this novel reminded of a gothic version of the film. It's a tale of a past that's truly bizarre, yet grounded in fact. This novel could easily be translated to the big screen and make a beautiful film by the way. Setterfield paints a very vivid picture in her descriptions of the landscapes, her characters appearances, the libraries, etc.

I'm so glad that I've finally joined the other half of the world that's read this book! I've been saying this a lot lately, but here's another author that I really look forward to following throughout her career. Setterfield certainly has a promising future ahead of her if she continues to turn out novels that deliver as well as this one did.

Loved It !.......2007-09-28

: ) ***** Dark, gothic, absorbing. I just couldn't put the book down. ***** : )

Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

Average customer rating:

A good historic fiction read
Powerful
One of the best books I've ever read
A different view.
Spartan Ethos Alive Again

Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
Steven Pressfield
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 055338368X
Release Date: 2005-09-27

Amazon.com

Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.

Thus reads an ancient stone at Thermopylae in northern Greece, the site of one of the world's greatest battles for freedom. Here, in 480 B.C., on a narrow mountain pass above the crystalline Aegean, 300 Spartan knights and their allies faced the massive forces of Xerxes, King of Persia. From the start, there was no question but that the Spartans would perish. In Gates of Fire, however, Steven Pressfield makes their courageous defense--and eventual extinction--unbearably suspenseful.

In the tradition of Mary Renault, this historical novel unfolds in flashback. Xeo, the sole Spartan survivor of Thermopylae, has been captured by the Persians, and Xerxes himself presses his young captive to reveal how his tiny cohort kept more than 100,000 Persians at bay for a week. Xeo, however, begins at the beginning, when his childhood home in northern Greece was overrun and he escaped to Sparta. There he is drafted into the elite Spartan guard and rigorously schooled in the art of war--an education brutal enough to destroy half the students, but (oddly enough) not without humor: "The more miserable the conditions, the more convulsing the jokes became, or at least that's how it seems," Xeo recalls. His companions in arms are Alexandros, a gentle boy who turns out to be the most courageous of all, and Rooster, an angry, half-Messenian youth.

Pressfield's descriptions of war are breathtaking in their immediacy. They are also meticulously assembled out of physical detail and crisp, uncluttered metaphor:

The forerank of the enemy collapsed immediately as the first shock hit it; the body-length shields seemed to implode rearward, their anchoring spikes rooted slinging from the earth like tent pins in a gale. The forerank archers were literally bowled off their feet, their wall-like shields caving in upon them like fortress redoubts under the assault of the ram.... The valor of the individual Medes was beyond question, but their light hacking blades were harmless as toys; against the massed wall of Spartan armor, they might as well have been defending themselves with reeds or fennel stalks.

Alas, even this human barrier was bound to collapse, as we knew all along it would. "War is work, not mystery," Xeo laments. But Pressfield's epic seems to make the opposite argument: courage on this scale is not merely inspiring but ultimately mysterious. --Marianne Painter

Book Description

The national bestseller!

At Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army.

Day after bloody day they withstood the terrible onslaught, buying time for the Greeks to rally their forces. Born into a cult of spiritual courage, physical endurance, and unmatched battle skill, the Spartans would be remembered for the greatest military stand in history--one that would not end until the rocks were awash with blood, leaving only one gravely injured Spartan squire to tell the tale....

From the Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews:

A good historic fiction read.......2007-10-09

If you enjoy this time era and especially The Spartans, you will not go wrong with this book.

Powerful.......2007-10-01

I don't read much fiction, but a friend of mine bought this book for me. I read it and was impressed by how well written this historical fiction is. Anyone interested in warfare, modern or ancient, should look into this book. Pressfield gives such an authentic account of how Spartans would have acted on a day-to-day basis.

One of the best books I've ever read.......2007-09-25

This book is absolutely amazing. One of the best reads ever. Not only does it describe the battle but it also details the life of a Spartan. I wish 300 was based on the story presented here

A different view........2007-09-21

The story of the 300 is generally limited in scope. "The Spartans had 300 guys who fought to the death to keep the Persians out."
Pressfield gives us the background. He tells us about the politics, the geopolitics, the war, the characters such as Leonidas and his wife. He has vignettes in the words of Spartan warriors.
With Pressfield, we can see the stand of the 300 in its place. I was reminded of something the aviator/writer Wolfgang Langweische said half a century ago. Boulder Dam, he said, is enormous. But when you fly over it, it's in its proper place, like a child jamming a pebble in the narrowest part of a trickle of water. Which, when you think about it, is what is supposed to happen.
Circumstances conspired to put 300 Spartans and several hundred of their tough allies in a tiny mountain pass. They were the pebble, but instead of blocking a trickle, they were trying to hold back a torrent.
Pressfield has Leonidas say that the performance of the Spartans in killing Persians should be such that, although victorious, the Persians will quail at seeing a battle line containing not 300 Spartan shields, but six thousand.
Pressfield gives us glimpses of training new soldiers and the field work of the experienced soldiers. His characters refer to the more or less normal fights between the city states, with enough detail and immediacy to put the reader into the fight.
We learn a lot about classical Greek combat.

It's a fabulous story. The stand of the 300 was very likely one of the few battles which could be said to have preserved the West, matched with Tours and Lepanto.

And yet. And yet. Pressfield has the Spartans nearly as philosopher kings. See, instead, Hanson's "Soul of Battle". The Spartan society was a vicious, fascist slave empire. It was as if a couple of Waffen SS divisions had found themselves a big, fertile valley in the Ukraine someplace and missed the end of WW II, being left untouched and unknown by the outside world.

The demands of war and the bonding of the combat units, in addition to the classical Greek view of man-love, required the distortion of the family and the degradation of women. The necessity of keeping the helots in thrall required routine terror and, indeed, the young Spartan was used to execute those serfs whose deaths might be a salutary lesson, just in case, as a way of blooding the youth for combat.

Vlad the Impaler fought the Turks in Southeast Europe and to him, unfortunately, we owe a bit of our existence. The same is true for the Spartans. It's too bad we couldn't get this lesson of courage and honor from, say, the democracy of Athens. It appears that some of the doomed allies of the Spartans who stood with them, and died alike, came from somewhat more acceptable polities. But they didn't get the ink.

Nevertheless, it's a fascinating book which actually is one of those examples of the cliche about not being able to put it down.

Spartan Ethos Alive Again.......2007-09-17

This is one of the best historical fictions I have ever encountered--certainly one of the best evocations of ancient warfare. Without the benefit of personal experience of either subject, ancient warfare or warfare of any kind, I would also guess that this novel is one of the most insightful anaylses of the psychology of combat. This book is an impressive achievement of the imagination. Steven Pressfield has re-discovered or re-created the Spartan ethos in terms of what it surely was in its time--a spiritual force. And he does it without disguising it origins in a slave revolt and a deliberate policy to crush the resistance of its Helot population. From those ugly and life-denying origins, a way of life--an ethic of sorts and a vision of essentials--emerged and took on a life of its own. Appropriately, this novel is about personal transformations under the aegis of that way of life.

Average customer rating:

A Phenomenal Read!
Great adventure from east to west coast.
A fun ride, but lots of negatives
A slow start grows into an engrossing, richly detailed book
Appealingly impossible novel

Heyday: A Novel
Kurt Andersen
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0375504737
Release Date: 2007-03-06

Book Description

Heyday is a brilliantly imagined, wildly entertaining tale of America’s boisterous coming of age–a sweeping panorama of madcap rebellion and overnight fortunes, palaces and brothels, murder and revenge–as well as the story of a handful of unforgettable characters discovering the nature of freedom, loyalty, friendship, and true love.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, modern life is being born: the mind-boggling marvels of photography, the telegraph, and railroads; a flood of show business spectacles and newspapers; rampant sex and drugs and drink (and moral crusades against all three); Wall Street awash with money; and giddy utopian visions everywhere. Then, during a single amazing month at the beginning of 1848, history lurches: America wins its war of manifest destiny against Mexico, gold is discovered in northern California, and revolutions sweep across Europe–sending one eager English gentleman off on an epic transatlantic adventure. . . .

Amid the tumult, aristocratic Benjamin Knowles impulsively abandons the Old World to reinvent himself in New York, where he finds himself embraced by three restless young Americans: Timothy Skaggs, muckraking journalist, daguerreotypist, pleasure-seeker, stargazer; the fireman Duff Lucking, a sweet but dangerously damaged veteran of the Mexican War; and Duff’s dazzling sister Polly Lucking, a strong-minded, free thinking actress (and discreet part-time prostitute) with whom Ben falls hopelessly in love.

Beckoned by the frontier, new beginnings, and the prospects of the California Gold Rush, all four set out on a transcontinental race west–relentlessly tracked, unbeknownst to them, by a cold-blooded killer bent on revenge.

A fresh, impeccable portrait of an era startlingly reminiscent of our own times, Heyday is by turns tragic and funny and sublime, filled with bona fide heroes and lost souls, visionaries (Walt Whitman, Charles Darwin, Alexis de Tocqueville) and monsters, expanding horizons and narrow escapes. It is also an affecting story of four people passionately chasing their American dreams at a time when America herself was still being dreamed up–an enthralling, old-fashioned yarn interwoven with a bracingly modern novel of ideas.
"In this utterly engaging novel, the author of Turn of the Century brings 19th-century America vividly to life . . . While this is a long book, it moves quickly, with historical detail that's involving but never a drag on the action; the characters are beautifully drawn. A terrific book; highly recommended." –Library Journal
"Heyday is fuled by manic energy, fanatical research, and a wicked sense of humor.... It's a joyful, wild gallop through a joyful, wild time to be an American." -Vanity Fair

Customer Reviews:

A Phenomenal Read!.......2007-09-20

This novel is educational, exciting and well-written. Kurt Andersen is a talented author who has certainly done his research, and beautifully combines history with fiction. Read this book!

Great adventure from east to west coast........2007-09-03

This is a long book but worth it. Be prepared to commit yourself to this. You won't want to miss the ending. Great characters, interesting history. Books written in this era are always so fun to read. You won't be disappointed if you enjoy epic, romantic adventure filled stories.

A fun ride, but lots of negatives.......2007-08-21

I was torn between giving this book 4 stars or only 3. There are lots of negatives that distracted me from really enjoying this book, but, when I got to the end, I realized that it was worth the read.

I won't describe the plot - plenty of others have done that, and the book's summary is sufficient. Suffice it to say that the plot itself is one of the book's weaknesses: other reviewers mentioned the coincidences that forced me to suspend disbelief over and over again, but I think, as the book progresses, you get so used to these coincidences that it doesn't matter. In the end, the book is a kind of fairy tale, and coincidence is essential for such stories.

What bothered me most, however, is the author's need to flex his historical muscles at every turn. He clearly did lots of research, and wants to make sure you know it. He almost uses Tom Swifties - bits of exposition that go overboard to explain what he's presented - when tossing around "authentic" elements from the time. Inventions, clothing, food, and anything else he can present, Andersen keeps reminding us that he did his homework. Yet this ends up more distracting than if he simply mentioned these things in passing, or, rather, _didn't_ mention them all.

I read a lot of 19th century fiction, and Heyday does fit well into that style (though clearly it is contemporary, ie 21st century, 19th century fiction.) It's a fun read, full of interesting characters, and only a few tics mar its overall effect.

A slow start grows into an engrossing, richly detailed book.......2007-08-02

This is a loooong novel (640 pages), and as the editorial review from Publishers Weekly notes, one with a "slowish" beginning. The book opens in April 1948 with young Englishman Ben Knowles' arrival in America. On his first day in the new world, he encounters two of the other main characters, the beautiful actress Polly Lucking and her firefighting brother, Duff (the fourth main character, Timothy Skaggs, is introduced a bit later). However, the timeline then reverts back to six months before, when Ben has traveled to Paris to visit a friend. Although the events that occur in Paris are integral to the story that follows (including the introduction of another major character, Sergeant Drumont), I think that the author's use of a flashback here is the reason the first 100 pages or so of this novel tend to drag somewhat.

Once the book returns to the present time, however, the story begins to pick up. Author Andersen provides a fascinating glimpse of life in the mid-1800s, from dietary staples to the newspaper boom to brothels and bathroom habits. He's clearly done his research--for example, he often makes a point of incorporating more colloquial terms in describing "modern" life at that time. Andersen also uses several major historical events as vehicles for his plot, such as France's "February Revolution" and the California gold rush. Major historical figures appear as well--Charles Darwin, Walt Whitman, and others are actual characters in the book, while Abraham Lincoln and similar famous personage receive prominent mentions.

Each of the four main characters--Ben, Polly, Duff, and Skaggs--is afforded with plenty of time and a point of view voice. Early on, the focus is more on Ben's experiences in France and Polly's checkered history, but as the novel progresses, we learn more of Duff's secret past and Skaggs' aspirations; Drumont's perspective is given as well. Heyday is a book is full of both tragedy and humor, although with more of an emphasis on the latter. At the novel's conclusion, I felt that my extended stay in the nineteenth century was time well-spent, and I believe that you will too.

Appealingly impossible novel.......2007-07-30

"Heyday" presents the reader with a totally impossible plot, in the sense of one filled with outrageous coincidences plus main characters that somehow manage to meet almost every prominent figure and participate in every major event or historical movement on two continents in the middle of the 19th century. The resulting incredulity almost turns the story, despite the intense violence and mayhem, into a comedy.
Then there are the characters themselves, as flat and static as can be. They move around a lot, but they do not evolve, regardless of the monumental challenges with which are are constantly faced.
The book's sole strength--and it's a good one--is in the details of everyday life of the time. The author has done his homework! What luxurious descriptions of life in Paris, London, New York City, the Midwest, and California during the Gold Rush, including numerous titillating details about sexual habits and instruments!
But in the end, the book is just too long to sustain interest in detail alone

Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome (Novels of Ancient Rome)

Average customer rating:

A great book for the beach or a hammock
Does not do justice to Rome and the Romans
From the fog of pre-history to Augustan times
Personal review of "Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome"
A fascinating journey through the history of Rome

Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome (Novels of Ancient Rome)
Steven Saylor
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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SPQR X: A Point of Law (The SPQR Roman Mysteries)

ASIN: 0312328311
Release Date: 2007-03-06

Book Description

Spanning a thousand years, and following the shifting fortunes of two families though the ages, this is the epic saga of Rome, the city and its people.
Weaving history, legend, and new archaeological discoveries into a spellbinding narrative, critically acclaimed novelist Steven Saylor gives new life to the drama of the city’s first thousand years — from the founding of the city by the ill-fated twins Romulus and Remus, through Rome’s astonishing ascent to become the capitol of the most powerful empire in history. Roma recounts the tragedy of the hero-traitor Coriolanus, the capture of the city by the Gauls, the invasion of Hannibal, the bitter political struggles of the patricians and plebeians, and the ultimate death of Rome’s republic with the triumph, and assassination, of Julius Caesar.
Witnessing this history, and sometimes playing key roles, are the descendents of two of Rome’s first families, the Potitius and Pinarius clans: One is the confidant of Romulus. One is born a slave and tempts a Vestal virgin to break her vows. One becomes a mass murderer. And one becomes the heir of Julius Caesar. Linking the generations is a
mysterious talisman as ancient as the city itself.
Epic in every sense of the word, Roma is a panoramic historical saga and Saylor’s finest achievement to date.

Customer Reviews:

A great book for the beach or a hammock.......2007-10-01

This is the book I've been waiting for Saylor to write--a book that gives an overview of the Roman Republic. Is it great literature? Probably not. Is it great history? I would have to guess that historians might quibble. But it's a good read--I took it on vacation this summer and it was just perfect.

I think the reviewers who think poorly of this effort may be expecting a different book. I know that I'm getting a dose of general history in a fictional form. I also know that I'm not getting a literal history. I'm just glad to get a general idea of what historical persons lived in what period of Roman history and if I want to learn more there are scholarly books I could read.

I enjoyed the development of family histories here, and I think Saylor is a very clever writer. Relax and enjoy.

Does not do justice to Rome and the Romans.......2007-09-14

This book was an okay read, but is by no means a great work of historical fiction. The biggest problem is that the novel is meant to cover a thousand years of history in six hundred pages, and fails miserably. I myself am quite familiar with the history it covers, but I think that if I were not so conversant with Rome of the BCs I would find this book's way of telling it not only dull (as I did find it) but confusing. The fact is, people in real life do not just happen to review the past fifty years of history with each other every so often, and yet this is what happens again ... and again ... and again. I'd say that there is five times as much historical exposition in dialogue as there is in the narration itself, and it really cries out to be the other way round. Ugh. But the real problem here is that a novel of this length is biting off more than it can chew if it tries to cover a time period of this length and complexity. Saylor would have done better to write three six-hundred-page novels to cover Rome's first thousand years. Compare this with Colleen McCullough's superb Masters of Rome series, for example, each of which in eight hundred pages covers about twenty years of the late Republic, and conveys a real sense of the changes the society of Rome and the lives of the Romans change in that period. That's another thing completely lacking from 'Roma', by the way: Saylor tackles very little of the governmental, societal, and moralistic upheavals that shape the Republic's history, and when he does talk about them it's by and large in those unbearable, droning, boring, lacklustre expositional dialogues.

The frequent faux pas in grammar, spelling, style, etc., do not help either. Read something good instead.

From the fog of pre-history to Augustan times.......2007-09-14

The novel, which I think is the first one to cover such a time span in a single volume, is an excellent introduction to the early history of Rome and the republic, and it gives readers more than just politics, war and conquest. Mr. Saylor skillfully weaves ancient tradition and history into the story of Rome through major events, in eleven chapters.

Almost every chapter contains flash-backs or story-telling about the time span between chapters, thus linking it to the prior one. Well known single events or legends are mixed in, such as what's known as the rape of the Sabine women, the rape of Lucretia, the abduction of Verginia (a major event in itself in the novel), and more.

In the story ending, I smelled faint whiff of a sequel in the offing.

A suggestion: don't read the book to quickly, I liked it better on the second read-through, when I took more time. The prose is uneven in places but soars in others, and the dialogues tend to get a bit stilted. All in all it's a good read indeed.

A helpful graphic matches the family tree to the corresponding chapters, and each chapter is preceded by a map of Rome as it was at the time. In his Author's Note, Mr. Saylor provides a useful bibliography.

Personal review of "Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome".......2007-09-11

This book, just like other Steven Saylor novels, really kept my interest. I finished it in two days. Couldn't stop reading. This one, as usual, is up to his standard of excellent writing. I only hope that Steven keeps writing more novels of Ancient Rome, especially the Goridanus the Finder stories. If you never read the Sub Rosa series, after reading the above mentioned novel, definitely try the others. You'll be glad you did.

A fascinating journey through the history of Rome.......2007-08-29

- This review first appeared in the August 2007 issue of the Historical Novels Review (http://www.historicalnovelsociety.org)-

Steven Saylor, the award-winning mystery writer of the Roma Sub Rosa series, undertakes the multigenerational historical saga in his latest novel ROMA. Pioneered by the late James Michener and current purview of novelist Edward Rutherford, Saylor's entry into the genre is a noteworthy one. With his meticulous knowledge of ancient Rome, the subject matter seems a perfect match for someone of his impressive talent---a centuries-long journey from the founding of Rome to the rise and fall of the Republic and the assassination of Julius Caesar.

Saylor frames his compelling, fast-moving narrative in elegant prose, using the device of a fictional family whose fates are closely interwoven with the vicissitudes and fortunes of the city. The cast is large and varied, beginning with a salt trader's daughter in 1000 BC who receives a mysterious gold talisman that will become a family heirloom. Through the eyes of her descendants, the Potitius family, we witness the city's founding by Romulus and Remus, the struggles and intrigues of plebeians and patricians, Hannibal's invasion, a mass murderer's scheme to wipe out a competing dynasty, a vestal virgin's sacrifice, and the tragic attempt of two sibling politicians to revolutionize Roman society. Throughout we are regaled with the aspirations, delusions, brutal expediencies and hunger for immortality that permeated the struggle to build what arguably became history's most powerful empire.

Readers seeking a central character to identify with may be thwarted by the swift passage of years and events; those who persist will find themselves in awe of Saylor's command of his sprawling storyline, his penchant for detail, as well as his evident passion for what is truly his book's only central character--Rome herself, a city whose complex grandeur and enigmatic allure continue to entice our collective imagination.

Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey

Average customer rating:

A Compelling Tale of Grandeur, Betrayal, and Innocence
Queen Jane 'the Nine Days Queen': a pawn in the hands of others,
Unlucky Lady
Weir should stick to nonfiction
Disappointed

Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey
Alison Weir
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0345494857
Release Date: 2007-02-27

Book Description

I am now a condemned traitor . . . I am to die when I have hardly begun to live.

Historical expertise marries page-turning fiction in Alison Weir’s enthralling debut novel, breathing new life into one of the most significant and tumultuous periods of the English monarchy. It is the story of Lady Jane Grey–“the Nine Days’ Queen”–a fifteen-year-old girl who unwittingly finds herself at the center of the religious and civil unrest that nearly toppled the fabled House of Tudor during the sixteenth century.

The child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother, for whom she is merely a pawn in a dynastic game with the highest stakes, Jane Grey was born during the harrowingly turbulent period between Anne Boleyn’s beheading and the demise of Jane’s infamous great-uncle, King Henry VIII. With the premature passing of Jane’s adolescent cousin, and Henry’s successor, King Edward VI, comes a struggle for supremacy fueled by political machinations and lethal religious fervor.

Unabashedly honest and exceptionally intelligent, Jane possesses a sound strength of character beyond her years that equips her to weather the vicious storm. And though she has no ambitions to rule, preferring to immerse herself in books and religious studies, she is forced to accept the crown, and by so doing sets off a firestorm of intrigue, betrayal, and tragedy.

Alison Weir uses her unmatched skills as a historian to enliven the many dynamic characters of this majestic drama. Along with Lady Jane Grey, Weir vividly renders her devious parents; her much-loved nanny; the benevolent Queen Katherine Parr; Jane’s ambitious cousins; the Catholic “Bloody” Mary, who will stop at nothing to seize the throne; and the protestant and future queen Elizabeth. Readers venture inside royal drawing rooms and bedchambers to witness the power-grabbing that swirls around Lady Jane Grey from the day of her birth to her unbearably poignant death. Innocent Traitor paints a complete and compelling portrait of this captivating young woman, a faithful servant of God whose short reign and brief life would make her a legend.

“An impressive debut. Weir shows skill at plotting and maintaining tension, and she is clearly going to be a major player in the . . . historical fiction game.”
–The Independent

“Alison Weir is one of our greatest popular historians. In her first work of fiction . . . Weir manages her heroine’s voice brilliantly, respecting the past’s distance while conjuring a dignified and fiercely modern spirit.”
–London Daily Mail

Customer Reviews:

A Compelling Tale of Grandeur, Betrayal, and Innocence.......2007-10-04

The story of Lady Jane Grey, the tragic Nine Days Queen, is well known to most people familiar with the Tudor period. Nevertheless, she exerts a powerful attraction because she was kin to Henry VIII's children and became a pawn through no fault of her own, coming to the fore during a crisis in the Tudor succession following the death of Edward VI.

"Innocent Traitor" - acclaimed historian Alison Weir's entry into the historical fiction arena - brings Jane Grey to life in a unique and vibrant way. Through a medley of voices, including Jane's own, that of her mother Eleanor of Suffolk, her devoted nursemaid, and even Jane's royal cousin Mary Tudor, we experience the maneuverings and intrigues of life at court through various perspectives and opinions. We also come to know Jane as an emotionally abused child of gifted intelligence; as a young woman of staunch faith and honor; and as a reluctant queen whose pure reformist vision cannot overcome the depredations of her father-in-law and his ruthless associates. Helpless to stem the forces moving against her, Jane records her fate with stoic dignity and a keen eye.

It's to be expected that any book by Ms. Weir will be full of intimate details about life in the era; nevertheless, she does not overwhelm the narrative but rather expertly seasons it with facts that display her painstaking commitment to authenticity. In addition, she imbues even such unpleasant characters as Jane's parents with foibles and vulnerabilities of their own, giving them flesh-and-blood dimension. Jane's mother in particular dominates with her leonine pride in her royal blood, her rapacious ambition and her lusty marriage to a man who is her intellectual inferior. A true survivor of her time, she does not concede defeat, bending to obstacles when she cannot mold them to her will.

Readers of historical fiction should not miss this compelling debut by one of England's foremost authorities on the Tudors - a tale of grandeur, betrayal and innocence, framed by one woman's journey from throne to scaffold.

Queen Jane 'the Nine Days Queen': a pawn in the hands of others,.......2007-09-19

Alison Weir writes a wonderful novel about Lady Jane Grey.

While the novel is sympathetic to Jane Grey, it is not sentimental about her fate. As the pawn of ambitious parents and those who held power while Edward VI reigned, her uncrowned reign was both opportunistic and, I believe, unlawful.

This was not her doing, though, and it is hard to not to feel considerable sympathy for an intelligent young woman who was only 17 when she was beheaded.

Mary I really had no choice, but it is difficult to see that she took any great joy in executing her 'misguided' cousin. The 'real' villains are Lady Jane's parents and the Duke of Northumberland.

Highly recommended to those who would like some insight into the tragically short life of Lady Jane.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Unlucky Lady.......2007-09-19

"A beautiful daughter, my lady," announces the midwife uncertainly. "Healthy and vigorous." I should be joyful, thanking God for the safe arrival of a lusty child. Instead, my spirits plummet. All this-for nothing.

So begins the story of Lady Jane Grey. Historian and gifted author Alison Weir, in her first foray into the realm of fiction, has brought the world of Tudor England vividly alive in her version of the events that took place after the death of Henry VIII. Through first person narratives by Jane herself and a number of the other central characters, Jane's brief, tragic life unfolds. Known today as the Nine Days Queen, this maltreated girl was the innocent, unwilling pawn of her parents' political ambitions and victim of the vicious religious conflict that tore England apart during the 16th century. All the pageantry, plotting, and maneuvering of the royal court swirls around Jane as she grows, until the age of 15 when she is horrified to find that she has been declared Queen of England in place of the rightful heir, the Catholic (soon to be "Bloody") Mary. Vibrant characters, a plot that's hard to believe but true, and accurate period detail make this first novel an enthralling page-turner.

If Jane had been the hoped-for son , would her fate have been different? Would her brother's? Somehow, with the the Marquess and Marchioness of Dorset as parents, that's doubtful. The dearth of male heirs was a plague on the house of Tudor.

Weir should stick to nonfiction.......2007-09-13

Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Gray, is the story of Lady Jane Gray. Raised alternately by her overbearing and ambitious parents, who wanted her to marry King Edward VI, and by Katherine Parr and Thomas Seymour, she became Queen of England after her cousin's death, only to be executed nine days later. The narrative is told through the eyes of Jane, her mother, Katherine Parr (Henry VIII's sixth wife), John Dudley, and others.

I read her book on Mary, Queen of Scots and thought that that book was well done--great research and writing. But sadly, even though Innocent Traitor is well-researched, it felt as though I was reading nonfiction as told through a first-person narrator--it was simply a recitation of dry facts. I had a problem with the narrative being told in the present tense, and I also thought it was a good idea that the reader was reminded constantly of how old Jane was, otherwise I would have thought that the story was being told by an adult. For example, I found it hard to believe that a ten-year-old Jane would fully grasp the significance of the political and sexual intrigue of the time, her intelligence notwithstanding. Also, I was glad of the headings that told us who was talking, otherwise I would have thought that the story was all told by one and the same person.

I agree with the previous reviewer, who said that historical fiction of this caliber is best left to writers such as Philippa Gregory--at least Gregory brings her characters to life in ways that Weir wasn't able to in this novel.

Disappointed.......2007-09-07

Let me begin by saying that I love Alison Weir. I've read most of her non-fiction historial works and found them to be well-written, engrossing, and instructive. However, I think that in order to tell Lady Jane Grey's story, she should have stuck to her forte--dealing in facts.

It was a good idea to indicate which character was speaking at the beginning of their respective narratives, because there were no defining characteristics between each of the players. Each one had the same voice, the same level of self-awareness, and the same manner of speaking. Perhaps the novel would have been stronger if narrated by a third person.

Ms. Weir is a great historian, but the historical novels are best left to Philippa Gregory or Sharon Kay Penman.

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