fiercebunny (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fiercebunny) wrote2006-10-08 07:27 am
fiercebunny) wrote2006-10-08 07:27 am
Entry tags:
book ketchup
Eh, I've been remiss in keeping track of my books lately, which I intend to hopefully improve upon. So here's updates on the past couple of months...
August
Athénaïs: The Real Queen of France by Lisa Hilton - I'd been wanting to read this one for ages since the Marquise de Montespan led such a scandalous life and I finally found a used copy at Hastings. It has some fairly poor reviews on Amazon and having read it, I can understand why. The writer is extremely biased towards her subject and goes on at length about La Montespan's beauty, charms and humility. (She cooked dinner for nuns! With her own beautiful white hands!) So she seduced the King away from her supposedly closest friend, Louise de la Vallière, she's just a spirited young girl. Leave her alone! Oddly, the other books I've read about this time period make La Montespan out to be a huge bitch. That's not even getting into the L'Affaire des Poisons, where La Montespan was largely implicated in participating in the poisonings and Black Masses. (Although Hilton defends La Montespan's innocence in the scandal, of course.) You can kind of get an idea of what's actually going on if you read between the lines, but Hilton's attempt to rehabilitate La Montespan's reputation is tiresome. I want scandale damnit!
The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette by Carolly Erikson - an engaging and highly sympathetic portrayal although the writer takes a fair amount of poetic license. Marie takes a diplomatic/romantic trip to Sweden with Axel Von Fersen, for example (didn't happen). The Necklace Affair isn't mentioned at all either, which seemed a little odd as well. Still, I enjoyed reading it.
The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease - An impoverished but aristocratic widow tries to curry favor with the Church by taking in a manuscript illuminator and his daughter. Set in England during Medieval times, so it was a nice change of pace until the plot became hugely depressing. No problems with the writing style . . . it was just really depressing. And the ending was very forced and not believable.
Uncharted Territory by Connie Willis (reread) - a light Western-style science-fiction comedy. Love Willis, would recommend anything by her. Not as good as To Say Nothing of the Dog (which I love), but fun regardless.
The Raven Ring by Patricia C. Wrede -![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mythicalgryphon helped me out by lending me some books after I was stuck for reading material. This one was a pretty good fantasy novel, although it was fairly brief. I'll have to check and see if it's part of a series.
Circle of Pearls by Rosalind Laker - another borrowed book. I really loved this one. It's set during the conflict between the Cavaliers and the Puritans during the Commonwealth period. Lots of great historical detail, lots of depth given to the characters. Actually, I think my favorite part was that the mother in the book did needlework and Laker had done proper research on it. I get really peeved when writers used needlework as shorthand for a sign of passivity. (And okay, the mother is kind of passive, but ends up being a really strong character, etc. *rambling dwindles off*) Anyway, I quite enjoyed it and need to track down my own copy as well as Laker's other books.
September
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain - I really enjoy Bourdain's writing. Cynical, witty, has the unfortunate effect of making me want to try lots of unattainable gourmet food.
Versailles by Kathryn Davis - sort of a post-modern take on Marie Antoinette's story. It shifts from first to third person, but from Marie's prospective beyond the grave. Occassionally, it takes the form of a play or poems. I feel kind of meh about this approach. It's not badly done, (at least not as badly as The Red Queen, which I hated), but it's not a style I enjoy very much. If you like stream-of-conscious though, you may enjoy it.
The Goddess of the Green Room by Jean Plaidy. The downtown library had a few out-of-print Plaidy books, yay. This one was regarding the ill-fated romance between comic actress Dorothy Jordan and William, the Duke of Clarence. Interesting to learn about theater at that time period as well as Plaidy's portrayal of mad King George III. The royalty in this one all come off really badly.
August
Athénaïs: The Real Queen of France by Lisa Hilton - I'd been wanting to read this one for ages since the Marquise de Montespan led such a scandalous life and I finally found a used copy at Hastings. It has some fairly poor reviews on Amazon and having read it, I can understand why. The writer is extremely biased towards her subject and goes on at length about La Montespan's beauty, charms and humility. (She cooked dinner for nuns! With her own beautiful white hands!) So she seduced the King away from her supposedly closest friend, Louise de la Vallière, she's just a spirited young girl. Leave her alone! Oddly, the other books I've read about this time period make La Montespan out to be a huge bitch. That's not even getting into the L'Affaire des Poisons, where La Montespan was largely implicated in participating in the poisonings and Black Masses. (Although Hilton defends La Montespan's innocence in the scandal, of course.) You can kind of get an idea of what's actually going on if you read between the lines, but Hilton's attempt to rehabilitate La Montespan's reputation is tiresome. I want scandale damnit!
The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette by Carolly Erikson - an engaging and highly sympathetic portrayal although the writer takes a fair amount of poetic license. Marie takes a diplomatic/romantic trip to Sweden with Axel Von Fersen, for example (didn't happen). The Necklace Affair isn't mentioned at all either, which seemed a little odd as well. Still, I enjoyed reading it.
The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease - An impoverished but aristocratic widow tries to curry favor with the Church by taking in a manuscript illuminator and his daughter. Set in England during Medieval times, so it was a nice change of pace until the plot became hugely depressing. No problems with the writing style . . . it was just really depressing. And the ending was very forced and not believable.
Uncharted Territory by Connie Willis (reread) - a light Western-style science-fiction comedy. Love Willis, would recommend anything by her. Not as good as To Say Nothing of the Dog (which I love), but fun regardless.
The Raven Ring by Patricia C. Wrede -
mythicalgryphon helped me out by lending me some books after I was stuck for reading material. This one was a pretty good fantasy novel, although it was fairly brief. I'll have to check and see if it's part of a series.Circle of Pearls by Rosalind Laker - another borrowed book. I really loved this one. It's set during the conflict between the Cavaliers and the Puritans during the Commonwealth period. Lots of great historical detail, lots of depth given to the characters. Actually, I think my favorite part was that the mother in the book did needlework and Laker had done proper research on it. I get really peeved when writers used needlework as shorthand for a sign of passivity. (And okay, the mother is kind of passive, but ends up being a really strong character, etc. *rambling dwindles off*) Anyway, I quite enjoyed it and need to track down my own copy as well as Laker's other books.
September
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain - I really enjoy Bourdain's writing. Cynical, witty, has the unfortunate effect of making me want to try lots of unattainable gourmet food.
Versailles by Kathryn Davis - sort of a post-modern take on Marie Antoinette's story. It shifts from first to third person, but from Marie's prospective beyond the grave. Occassionally, it takes the form of a play or poems. I feel kind of meh about this approach. It's not badly done, (at least not as badly as The Red Queen, which I hated), but it's not a style I enjoy very much. If you like stream-of-conscious though, you may enjoy it.
The Goddess of the Green Room by Jean Plaidy. The downtown library had a few out-of-print Plaidy books, yay. This one was regarding the ill-fated romance between comic actress Dorothy Jordan and William, the Duke of Clarence. Interesting to learn about theater at that time period as well as Plaidy's portrayal of mad King George III. The royalty in this one all come off really badly.