Although the Mormon church officially gave up polygamy in 1890, the practice is still associated with it, sometimes through contemporary fundamentalist groups or historically. David Ebershoff takes on both a historic and a contemporary story in The 19th Wife. The first story is a fictionalization of the life of Ann Eliza Young, one of Brigham Young’s wives, who divorced him, and later wrote a book called Wife Number 19, became a public speaker and advocate against polygamy. The second story belongs to Jordan Scott, excommunicated […]
A Story Of Masks And Costumes
While not my favorite read so far, Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring is at least moderately enjoyable. More importantly, though it is set in the 1660s in Europe, this novel highlights the illusion of social mobility we cling to and our obsession with appearances. We like to think as a society that we have moved on from the prejudices of Griet’s days, but reading Girl with a Pearl Earring, some of what she faces feels all too familiar. Read the full review here.
The one where I still love that Scotsman…
The second book in Diana Gabaldon’s best-selling Outlander series, Dragonfly in Amber opens in present day (well, late 1960s, I think, if I do the math correctly, but more present day than eighteenth century). Claire has returned to Scotland after her husband Frank’s death, and she’s brought her daughter, tall red haired Brianna, with her. The trip is ostensibly a mother-daughter vacation, but Claire is actually looking for a way to tell Brianna that her real father is Jamie Fraser, the man Claire married in […]
Dark Ages Lady Fiction, A+, Yes Please
Was sort of uninterested in this book, until I read this blog post by the author. Boom! Sudden interest, give it to me now. And I’m really glad I picked it up. My experience with Hild is the textbook example of why it’s a good idea to read outside your normal genres every once in a while. I don’t read very much historical fiction, and those I do read are usually the ones that have some sort of unusual hook, like TWO SOLDIERS IN WWII […]
Superheroes Need Grammar and Punctuation, Too (A Robert CBR6 Review)
What happens when an amazing story is torn apart by the author in the name of style over substance? Lavie Tidhar self-sabotages his latest novel, The Violent Century, just like that. Essentially, Tidhar is exploring an alternate reality where an unnamed catastrophic event caused hundreds of people around the world to transform into superhumans. Fogg and Oblivion, two British agents mostly used for information gathering rather than combat, control fog and dissipate matter, respectively. They are reporting their exploits in every major interntational war from […]
Lights in the darkness of a new Britain
In AD 410, Aquila is a Roman soldier, born and stationed in Britain – a Britain which has been irrevocably influenced by its tumultous relationship with its Roman conquerors, and which is being ravaged by invading Saxons. When the Romans retreat from Britain, Aquila is forced to choose between his loyalties: between his family, especially his beloved sister Flavia, and the influence of Rome, which he sees as the last bastion of light in a darkening world. In Ambrosius Aurelianus, who leads the fight against […]