Historical Fiction Archives - Page 13 of 20

Mary, Called Magdalene by Margaret George: Book Review

This is the story of Mary Magdalene's entire life, from childhood to her death. I enjoyed seeing this controversial historical figure in her own element, with no one sitting in judgment of who she was and her relationship to Jesus. The woman who emerged from these pages was initially very troubled. She was doing her best, but she was literally plagued by demons. She met Jesus when she had given up all hope. He gave her her life back, but her old life didn't want her back. Her family was ashamed of her, partially because of the time she had spent alone with unrelated men, and partly because she believed Jesus's message. With nowhere else to go, she became one of his first followers and traveled and worked miracles in His name. My problem was that it was too long. Had it been about half this size, it would have been perfect. I started to feel like this whole group was wandering up and down Israel without any real idea what they were doing. There are only so many pages of that I can read. I haven't read very many historical fiction books set around Jesus and his apostles, so I liked seeing all of them as "real" people, in language I could understand. I had a much better idea of their individual personalities after finishing this. I'll be the first to admit that I'm no Biblical scholar, but I feel that the author stayed true to the sense we get of them in Scripture. I also liked seeing what everyday life was like in those times. I especially liked reading about women's lives. Since I mentioned the relationship with Jesus, I'll say that I thought it was pretty delicately handled. I am pretty open-minded, but it all felt plausible…

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry: Book Review

Annemarie Johansen is a 10-year-old girl growing up in Denmark during WWII. Soldiers occupy every street corner and everyone does his or her best not to draw attention to themselves. Annemarie's best friend, Ellen, is a Jew. One night, Annemarie's family hides Ellen from soldiers who are looking for Jews. How far is the family willing to go to provide that protection? How brave can they be? I don't know how I didn't ever read this in school. Well, I guess I do now that I looked at the copyright date. :( Published in 1989, I was probably a little too old for it by the time it truly came to the attention of teachers. Anyway, I would probably have liked this just a bit more had I read it when I was younger. I do read YA and MG books, but I gravitate toward fantasy. I don't always fully appreciate the realistic books. I have to say that I did like this, even coming to it late. I can see how it makes a good introduction to the Holocaust for younger readers. There's plenty of fear but very little violence. The fear is even vague. No one is talking about camps or ovens. I like that everyone involved is just an ordinary person. When so many of our "heroes" today are lionized to the point of seeming to be superhuman, it's nice to be reminded that true heroes are ordinary people doing their best in extraordinary circumstances. That gives everyone room to be a hero. One thing I did like, and I'm sure kids relate to, is that Annemarie gets to play her own heroic part. She is scared and she questions her own bravery, but her family entrusts her with a big responsibility when it becomes obvious that…

Wild Orchid by Cameron Dokey: Book Review

3 Stars. This was a decent book, but I have a couple of complaints. I was excited to read a non-Western fairy tale re-telling. While I did enjoy the story, and I really liked Mulan herself, this book stayed a little too faithful to what I know of the legend from the Disney movie. I enjoy re-tellings that add an unusual twist to [...]

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen: Book Review

Twenty-three-year-old Jacob Jankowski has just lost his parents in a car crash. They had already lost everything in the Great Depression. In a devastating bout of grief, Jacob, a vet school student, walks out of his final exams at Cornell University. He ends up working for a circus as the vet. His boss, August, is an unstable man who treats the animals and his employees cruelly. Jacob feels helpless to assist those in his care in the face of August's unpredictable wrath. Despite all this, Jacob at the age of 93 (or is it 90?) looks back frequently to his time with the circus and the people and animals he met there. First of all, let me just say here that I love Rosie the elephant. She has more personality than most of the other characters combined. What a charming rogue! I'm ready to give her a home in my backyard! Okay, with that out of the way, I'll say that I was hooked from the first page of this book. I read it in one very nice 12-hour shift at work. I was pulling for Jacob and his friends and I just had to make sure that they came through okay. I got so engrossed that at one point I gasped and cried, "Oh no!" Then looked around to make sure no one had heard me. I lose myself in books frequently. I don't talk out loud to books much, if ever. Sara Gruen had caught me in her spell all right. Without getting into spoilers, I'll just say that there were a few things that I didn't quite buy that kept me from giving this five stars. But I did honestly enjoy it and I'm glad that I read it. In fact, I wish I hadn't fought so…

A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin: Book Review

Picking up where the first book left off, the Seven Kingdoms are in chaos. There are now three claimants to the Iron Throne and the North has declared something of a war of independence on the rest of the country. This book has almost everything. Treachery, loyalty, conspiracies, conspiracies within conspiracies, turncoats, power plays, twists, turns, you name it. The only thing I find to be missing is a love story. I don't need much, but in a book this epic in scope, it feels like somebody should be in love with somebody else and want to talk about it. It's a small thing though, and I'm more than willing to overlook it since Martin does everything else so well. I found it a little daunting when I realized that there are 28 pages of characters at the end of the book. That's right. Twenty-eight. But I found the main characters very easy to keep track of. It probably helps that I'm not someone who needs to know exactly how each minor character fits into which family. I found the cast of characters to be very manageable, and I don't think I have a huge tolerance for books with too many characters. Speaking of characters, I loved watching how some of the characters grow throughout the book. As I recall, there wasn't a whole lot of character growth in the first book, but I guess the author was mostly worried about laying a good foundation for his story. So watching the sometimes surprising ways that some of my favorites developed was intriguing. And I was left with my heart aching for the path one character is forced to follow. I think causing that kind of emotional investment in your characters is one of the marks of a great author. Another…

Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis: Book Review

Kat Stephenson is the youngest in her family, but she just might be the most opinionated. Stepmama is trying to improve the family's fortunes by marrying off the eldest daughter, Elissa, to a rich lord. Kat doesn't like it and she sets out to stop it. Little does she realize that she has inherited her mother's magical abilities. Strange things keep happening around her and she just can't stay out of trouble. But she's determined to have her way. What a cute book! I loved it! Kat is (mostly) adorable. Even when she was irritating me with her absolute refusal to listen to anyone else, I had to admire her for being consistent and standing up for what she believed in. The story itself took one unpredictable twist after another, and I found that I had finished it before I was ready to be done with it. I loved the juxtaposition of Kat's incorrigible self and her magic against the backdrop of Regency England. Society has no idea what it's in for! I'm still not entirely sure exactly what it is a mysterious group of magicians want Kat to do. I felt a little bad for them, but at the same time, they never explained themselves. Maybe Kat didn't give them the opportunity, but still. Who are they? I guess that's what sequels are for! Kat is by far the star of the show, but I also liked her next oldest sister a lot. Just as feisty, but perhaps even more devious, Angeline is a force to be reckoned with. Elisa is a little bit too prim and proper, but her desire to be a Gothic heroine got a giggle or two out of me. I'll be eagerly awaiting the sequel to this book, and I highly recommend it. It's…

Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières: Book Review

Pelagia is a beautiful 17-year-old girl living on the Greek island of Cephallonia when World War II breaks out. The Italians eventually occupy the island and that's when she meets Captain Antonio Corelli, a man who joined the Army because he thought it would give him plenty of time to practice his mandolin. There were about 100 pages when I was enchanted by this book, from about page 250-350. Everything else was just okay. The author is a beautiful writer. He's very poetic and his images just leapt to life for me. He's also a very intelligent, multi-lingual writer and my vocabulary, which I think is probably better than average, was not up to the task. Aside from obscure English words, there were bits of Greek, Italian, French, and a smattering of German thrown in for good luck. Wow. I could generally figure out what was going on, but reading this was a little too much like work in some parts. The book is told from many, many, points of view and each voice is very distinct. That's very hard to pull off, so he did get huge points for that. He also has a little bit of the whole Catch-22 thing going on. He shows you the absurdity of this whole war--well, this part of it, anyway--very plainly. But where Joseph Heller chose to show the horrible side of war in a very graphic injury that you've read about for a while before you find out what it is, de Bernières horrifies you and then breaks your heart in a couple of scenes that are ultimately tearfully, achingly beautiful. I'm not a crier, but even I welled up a little. He shows that while war can be absurd, it's also ugly, but our more-human moments shine all the more…

Dreadfully Ever After by Steve Hockensmith: Guest Book Review

I must admit that I have not read any literary mash-ups. I own Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Dawn of the Dreadfuls, thanks to Misty at Book Rat, but I haven't gotten to them yet. Not for lack of interest, it's just a matter of too many books and not enough time. My younger sister, however, has read both books. She was visiting when I got a pitch for the last in the trilogy, Dreadfully Ever After, and she was dying for me to accept. So I did--with a catch. I told her I would ask for a review copy if she would read the book and write the review. Our taste in books is remarkably similar, so it would practically be like reading my own opinion of the book. She agreed, Eric at Quirk Books agreed (Thanks, Eric!), and here, without further ado, is Rachel's review of Dreadfully Ever After. In 2009, Seth Grahame-Smith became a co-author of the beloved Jane Austen when he created Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a unique blend that has worked so well that many others have broadened this strange genre. Whether you’re a fan or think literary mash-ups are a travesty of the English language, the saga continues. Steve Hockensmith wrote PP&Z: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, his own imagining of the prequel to PP&Z, in 2010. Now he has finished the trilogy with PP&Z: Dreadfully Ever After. You didn’t expect it to be happily ever after now, did you? I must admit, I am a fan. Like the rest of the world, I thought the idea was quirky, unique, and--let’s face it--I loved the idea of an armed Lizzy. In this latest installment, we find out what happens after “Til death, or undeath, do us part.” I do love Jane Austen (she…

The Known World by Edward P. Jones: Book Review

Henry Townsend is a former slave. His old owner took a liking to Henry and so has helped him out in his shoe-making business. Henry eventually makes enough money to build his own small plantation house and to start buying his own slaves. The book begins with Henry's death and skips around in time to explore questions about race, slavery, and freedom. This wasn't exactly my kind of book, but I did enjoy it. The writing was a little stark for me, but on reflection I realized that this style was probably the only appropriate style for the subject matter. There were kind of a lot of characters and I had a little bit of a hard time keeping them all straight. They also weren't really all that well-developed, but that wasn't really the point of the book. I don't really have a whole lot to say about the book. I will say this: I hate writing reviews of books that touch on race. I don't know if it's because I'm a Southerner or if all Americans have this problem, but I'm always afraid that I'm going to write something offensive without meaning to. I hate that. I hate that we all have to walk on eggshells on this issue. Not that we shouldn't--I am glad that we're becoming more aware of our behaviors and trying to correct them. We are making progress, I just wish that the issues that exist didn't exist and we didn't have to worry about it at all. That being said, the issues do exist and one of the only ways we can get any perspective is by reading these kinds of books that make us think about race issues and at least try to get an idea what it's like to be in someone…

Zora and Me by Victoria Bond: Book Review

Zora Neale Hurston grew up in Eatonville, FL, "the first incorporated all-black township in the United States." In this fictional account of an incident in her childhood, Eatonville at first seems to be idyllic. Sure, the residents aren't very well off, but they're safe and free to be whoever they'd like. After a headless corpse is found by the railroad tracks, Zora and her friend Carrie's perspectives are changed forever. This was a very fast read. Zora herself is a delight. She reminds me a bit of Anne Shirley in that she names everything around her and has her own mythology to explain the world. She's the leader of this little group of friends and she keeps friends Carrie and Teddy on their toes. Zora and Carrie get a little too caught up in the events surrounding the murder at the train tracks. They've been on the edges of a lot of the events leading up to the death and curious Zora is trying her best to put all the pieces together. Seeing the world through their innocence, and seeing them just starting to lose that innocence, feels very real. They don't have the experience to really understand what they're seeing at first, but they gain that experience the hard way. The novel becomes a good introduction to race relations in the US. I can't imagine that it would be an easy read for youngsters, but these kinds of books never are. Nevertheless, it is important that we know our history. The authors don't shy away from alluding to lynchings (note that I did write "alluding to"--nothing is spelled out) or using "the N word," so if your child isn't ready for that, it might be best to save this book for later. All of that makes the book sound…