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ladyofastolatBooks read since the last time I posted about such things - some historical, some fantasy, some children's book re-reads.
The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier.
A novel about the famous "lady and unicorn" tapestries, told through the eyes of a wide range of people involved in their creation. I do generally like multi-viewpoint stories, but I felt that some characters were short-changed, with key emotional moments happening off camera or glimpsed through other eyes. I did quite enjoy it, though… until I stopped to look up some background information and found that the entire work is a piece of fiction; in reality, very little is known about the provenance of these things. I’d have enjoyed it more had it been about a fictional work of art, I think. Taking a real work of art and making up everything about its provenance seemed wrong to me, and affected my emotional involvement. But I still found it interesting to learn about the methods involved.
The Peachgrower’s Almanac by Elaine di Rollo
Picked up at random from the library. Set in 1857, this concerns two sisters, daughters of an eccentric collector. One has been disgraced, married off, and is now in India. The other, a keen photographer, is still at home, threatened by a deeply unpleasant doctor. It claims to be a rollicking romp, but it wasn’t, really, neither did I find the comedy that was promised. It made me cross, as it was meant to do, about the terrible unfairness of a society that was able to label a woman’s desire for independence of thought as "madness" in need of a “cure.”
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Set just before and during WW2, this is an adult novel about a boy who has never recovered from the loss of his mother, and bitterly resents his father’s remarriage. Books begin to talk to him (or maybe it’s all his imagination), and when a plane crashes in the garden while he is out in it, he crawls (or imagines that he crawls?) through a hole into a world shaped by the books on his shelf, most of them dark twisted versions of fairy tales. Convinced that his mother is in there somewhere and in need of rescue, he journeys through the land, meeting various people along the way, and gaining insight into his own grief and resentment.
I thought this started very well, but I soon got bored, as it felt quite episodic, and in the end I didn’t really care what happened, or whether this was all real or just imagination. The communist dwarves were fun, though.
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Set in 1947/8, this is told in the first person by a country doctor, a man of working class stock now awkwardly caught between social classes. As a child, he was dazzled by the glamour of the local Great House. Now he returns as their doctor, and finds it a shadow of its former self, sinking into ruin around the now-impoverished family. Over the months, he grows more and more involved with the family, as things begin to take a disturbing and sinister turn. Could the family really be haunted?
I really liked this. It’s billed as a ghost story, and all the promotional quotes talk about being scared, but the ghost (or possible ghost) element really isn’t the focus for most of the book - or wasn't to me, anyway. It’s a long, slow, character-driven book, which is more a study of the class system and the decline of the Great House than anything else. I loved the way the ending made me rethink and revisit things that had gone before, but I will say nothing more because of spoilers. A very good book, in my opinion.
The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow
I loved The Thousand Doors of January, and this is the author’s second book. It’s set in an 1890s America in which witchcraft is real, but very much stamped on. The main characters are three estranged sisters who are reunited when all come separately to New Salem, the "godly city" built after the original Salem was destroyed in the witch purge. Along with their magic, women in general are very repressed, but just beginning to campaign for the vote. As part of this, the sisters recruit others in an attempt to rediscover the lost glories of full-blown witchcraft, while a sinister politician, dedicated to crushing all witches, is rapidly gaining power.
I did enjoy this, but writing a few weeks later, I’m finding that I can’t really remember it. Some of it was written in a deliberately "storytelling" style, with the characters as fairy-tale archetypes. I do remember feeling that this was somewhat at the expense of characterisation, and although I cared about what happened to the world, I didn’t feel emotionally for the characters is quite the way I would have hoped to.
The Exiles (3 book series) by Hilary McKay
Dipping-in re-read of this excellent children’s book series about 4 chaotic, eccentric and book-mad sisters. In book one, they’re "exiled" to the Lake District to stay with their grandma and forced to exist without books. In book two, they secretly commit to raising £10 a month to sponsor a boy in Africa – chaos and comedy ensures. In book three, three of them (not Phoebe, the youngest, who’s in training to be an international spy) succumb to the "family failing" by falling in love.
The Mask of Mirrors by MA Carrick (a pseudonym for Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms)
Fantasy, first in a trilogy – not yet complete. This takes place in a city with a faint Venetian vibe – canals and mask-wearing. A noble elite, of foreign invading stock, rule over the oppressed masses, most of them descended from the local tribes for whom this is their sacred city. The main character, Arenza (Ren) was born in the city of humble stock, and is now returning from years away, masquerading as "Renata", daughter of a rich family’s long-estranged sister, in an attempt to con herself into wealth and status. But the rich family has fallen on hard times, hounded by a ruthless enemy, and Ren is soon sympathising with them and using her skills to genuinely help them. At the same time, street children are disappearing, dark plots are afoot, and a mysterious folk hero – The Rook, a masked avenger and champion of the poor – keeps popping up, too.
I really liked this, although I struggled for a while with the dazzling array of names, titles and concepts. Most characters have several names – family names, titles, honorifics, first names – so coming to terms with the cast was quite an undertaking. Halfway through, when I’d pretty much sorted things out in my head, I suddenly thought to cautiously check at the end to see if there was a glossary and a cast list, and indeed there was. Discovering that earlier would have helped.
But once I got past the learning curve, I really enjoyed it. It’s full of court politics, secret identities and plots. I do like a good secret masked hero, and at one point had 4 possible candidates for The Rook in mind, so enjoyed that part of it, too. It’s not a fast book, by any means, and really not for a reader who wants non-stop action, but I really liked it. For a first book in a trilogy, it is also pleasingly complete, with all the major plots of the book wrapped up by the end, although still leaving plenty of hooks and openings left for book two.
The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier.
A novel about the famous "lady and unicorn" tapestries, told through the eyes of a wide range of people involved in their creation. I do generally like multi-viewpoint stories, but I felt that some characters were short-changed, with key emotional moments happening off camera or glimpsed through other eyes. I did quite enjoy it, though… until I stopped to look up some background information and found that the entire work is a piece of fiction; in reality, very little is known about the provenance of these things. I’d have enjoyed it more had it been about a fictional work of art, I think. Taking a real work of art and making up everything about its provenance seemed wrong to me, and affected my emotional involvement. But I still found it interesting to learn about the methods involved.
The Peachgrower’s Almanac by Elaine di Rollo
Picked up at random from the library. Set in 1857, this concerns two sisters, daughters of an eccentric collector. One has been disgraced, married off, and is now in India. The other, a keen photographer, is still at home, threatened by a deeply unpleasant doctor. It claims to be a rollicking romp, but it wasn’t, really, neither did I find the comedy that was promised. It made me cross, as it was meant to do, about the terrible unfairness of a society that was able to label a woman’s desire for independence of thought as "madness" in need of a “cure.”
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Set just before and during WW2, this is an adult novel about a boy who has never recovered from the loss of his mother, and bitterly resents his father’s remarriage. Books begin to talk to him (or maybe it’s all his imagination), and when a plane crashes in the garden while he is out in it, he crawls (or imagines that he crawls?) through a hole into a world shaped by the books on his shelf, most of them dark twisted versions of fairy tales. Convinced that his mother is in there somewhere and in need of rescue, he journeys through the land, meeting various people along the way, and gaining insight into his own grief and resentment.
I thought this started very well, but I soon got bored, as it felt quite episodic, and in the end I didn’t really care what happened, or whether this was all real or just imagination. The communist dwarves were fun, though.
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Set in 1947/8, this is told in the first person by a country doctor, a man of working class stock now awkwardly caught between social classes. As a child, he was dazzled by the glamour of the local Great House. Now he returns as their doctor, and finds it a shadow of its former self, sinking into ruin around the now-impoverished family. Over the months, he grows more and more involved with the family, as things begin to take a disturbing and sinister turn. Could the family really be haunted?
I really liked this. It’s billed as a ghost story, and all the promotional quotes talk about being scared, but the ghost (or possible ghost) element really isn’t the focus for most of the book - or wasn't to me, anyway. It’s a long, slow, character-driven book, which is more a study of the class system and the decline of the Great House than anything else. I loved the way the ending made me rethink and revisit things that had gone before, but I will say nothing more because of spoilers. A very good book, in my opinion.
The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow
I loved The Thousand Doors of January, and this is the author’s second book. It’s set in an 1890s America in which witchcraft is real, but very much stamped on. The main characters are three estranged sisters who are reunited when all come separately to New Salem, the "godly city" built after the original Salem was destroyed in the witch purge. Along with their magic, women in general are very repressed, but just beginning to campaign for the vote. As part of this, the sisters recruit others in an attempt to rediscover the lost glories of full-blown witchcraft, while a sinister politician, dedicated to crushing all witches, is rapidly gaining power.
I did enjoy this, but writing a few weeks later, I’m finding that I can’t really remember it. Some of it was written in a deliberately "storytelling" style, with the characters as fairy-tale archetypes. I do remember feeling that this was somewhat at the expense of characterisation, and although I cared about what happened to the world, I didn’t feel emotionally for the characters is quite the way I would have hoped to.
The Exiles (3 book series) by Hilary McKay
Dipping-in re-read of this excellent children’s book series about 4 chaotic, eccentric and book-mad sisters. In book one, they’re "exiled" to the Lake District to stay with their grandma and forced to exist without books. In book two, they secretly commit to raising £10 a month to sponsor a boy in Africa – chaos and comedy ensures. In book three, three of them (not Phoebe, the youngest, who’s in training to be an international spy) succumb to the "family failing" by falling in love.
The Mask of Mirrors by MA Carrick (a pseudonym for Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms)
Fantasy, first in a trilogy – not yet complete. This takes place in a city with a faint Venetian vibe – canals and mask-wearing. A noble elite, of foreign invading stock, rule over the oppressed masses, most of them descended from the local tribes for whom this is their sacred city. The main character, Arenza (Ren) was born in the city of humble stock, and is now returning from years away, masquerading as "Renata", daughter of a rich family’s long-estranged sister, in an attempt to con herself into wealth and status. But the rich family has fallen on hard times, hounded by a ruthless enemy, and Ren is soon sympathising with them and using her skills to genuinely help them. At the same time, street children are disappearing, dark plots are afoot, and a mysterious folk hero – The Rook, a masked avenger and champion of the poor – keeps popping up, too.
I really liked this, although I struggled for a while with the dazzling array of names, titles and concepts. Most characters have several names – family names, titles, honorifics, first names – so coming to terms with the cast was quite an undertaking. Halfway through, when I’d pretty much sorted things out in my head, I suddenly thought to cautiously check at the end to see if there was a glossary and a cast list, and indeed there was. Discovering that earlier would have helped.
But once I got past the learning curve, I really enjoyed it. It’s full of court politics, secret identities and plots. I do like a good secret masked hero, and at one point had 4 possible candidates for The Rook in mind, so enjoyed that part of it, too. It’s not a fast book, by any means, and really not for a reader who wants non-stop action, but I really liked it. For a first book in a trilogy, it is also pleasingly complete, with all the major plots of the book wrapped up by the end, although still leaving plenty of hooks and openings left for book two.
