Book Of the Week 4/30/13: The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

The White Queen

by

Philippa Gregory

I wasn't sure if I would enjoy Philippa Gregory's The White Queen because,  although my favorite genre is historical novels,  I am not real found of romance novels.  I like a little romance in my historical fiction but I don't want a romance novel with a tad of history thrown in.   As it turned out,  I was not at all disappointed in The White Queen.  I felt as though I had found a fairy tale for grown ups.  It has magic,  kings,  queens,  princesses,  danger and intrigue in it along with the romance parts.  I listened to it on audio and I did feel the narrator was a bit melodramatic in her presentation at times but as the book progressed she either got better or I became accustomed to her voice because I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it.  In fact I just downloaded the second book in this series to listen to next. The White Queen  is Queen Elizabeth of Woodville.  She was the wife of King Edward IV and the story begins in the 1460's and ends in the 1480's.  She is considered The White Queen because  the House of York's symbol is the white rose.   Click on the title of the book and the author's name above to follow links to more information.  A video follows:

Book For The Week 4/18/13: The Far Pavilions by MM Kaye

The Far Pavilions

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MM Kaye

The April Selection for my library book group is The Far Pavilions by MM Kaye.  It is a very long epic historical novel beginning in the mid 19th century in British India and ending in the late 1870s in Afghanistan.  It is the story of a young boy named Ash whose British parents die while in India and a servant woman in the camp takes the toddler under her wing.  While protecting him during the uprising where all British are being slaughtered the servant woman becomes so attached she does not want to give the child up. He grows into a youngster who does not know he is not a native until he is around Jr High aged at which time he is told and is sent to his extended family in England.  After being educated in England he returns to what he considers his homeland and enters into a group of soldiers called "The Guides".   Part of the time he is in The Guides he is a spy in Afghanistan and assumes an Afghan identity during those years of his life.  As a result Ash has three identities and he lacks a sense of belonging in any of the three persona's.  In each community - Hindu,  Muslim and Christian - he has close friends but he feels cultural and religious barriers from time to time with all his close friends.   During both the beginning and the ending of the book Ash is in search of a remote valley in the Himalayas where people are not killing each other over differences.  Although I felt rushed trying to get through this book in time for next weeks meeting, it is a book I enjoyed very much and would highly recommend to others.  Please click on the title and author's name above to follow the links to learn more about this novel.   And enjoy the video below that explains some historical back ground of India during the time frame of the book.

Book Of The Week 4/3/13: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas

by

David Mitchell

This popular novel,  Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell,  is the most challenging reading I have done in a long time.   I plan to watch the movie to see if it clears some of the confusion up for me because much of the book  I just really didn't get.   The novel would require a great deal of both intelligence and education to grasp all the concepts.    People like me can enjoy the six story lines and get some of the points but the book goes much deeper than that.  Perhaps one needs to read it more than once or read it with a group that discusses it bit by bit as they read sections of it prior to discussions.  Many quotes from the book can be found HERE and one favorite is:

“Why fight the 'natural' (oh, weaselly word!) order of things? Why? Because of this--one fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself. In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction.”

The book starts out in the 19th century with the first character and proceeds through time until the final character is far in the future.   Many of the same questions and themes repeat in each era and the same souls are coming back in the different time frames.  That is where I got lost.  I could not tell which people were which in subsequent time periods and I think the movie will help with that as the actors faces will fill in that missing piece for me.  My favorite of the six stories was the vanity publisher that was admitted to a convalescent home against his will.  I found that part of the novel very amusing.  And when he and three of the other residents escaped I stayed up way to late reading that part.

Click on the title and the author's name above to follow links to more information and enjoy the following video:

A Movie With The Grandkids

While enjoying having Haily and Tyler overnight during their spring break,  I let them select a movie rental.  They picked ParaNorman.  I was concerned that it would be too scary of a movie but as I watched it with them I found it to be just fine for their pre-teen age range and I also enjoyed the movie very much.  As with many children's movies it has a moral to the story:   people are afraid of those that are different and in their fear they lash out to hurt the one that is different.