Summer Reading Begins Again!

It's time for the Summer Reading Program at my library which means two months of promoting reading to kids.  Who could ask for a more fun job?  This means that I will be staffing the SRP desk an hour a day, so I'm back to my challenge of reading all the Caldecott books.  So far just this week, I have read about 10, (there are 72 in all) so I think I will be able to complete my challenge by the end of July.  Yeah! 

Other than that, I have a busy couple of weeks of reading ahead of me.  I have three books to read and review for Historical Novels Society by June 15th.  Next week is our staff book discussion on Literary Fiction.  I am going to try and read The Stranger by Albert Camus and Beloved by Toni Morrison for the discussion.  Hopefully I will have time.  I had 14 holds come in for me all at the same time, so I have quite a pile to wade through! 

L is for Loving Frank

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

Loving Frank is the debut novel from former journalist Nancy Horan

This beautifully written piece of historical fiction chronicles the little known love story of architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney. Wright and Cheney met when she and her husband hired Wright to design their Oak Park, Illinois residence. Their first meeting rapidly turned into an affair that filled the headlines. Mamah, an intellectual and highly educated woman, struggles with her emotions as she is torn between her relationship with Wright, whom she considers the love of her life, and the children she leaves behind with her husband. The book is full of detail of early twentieth century America and portrays a woman who is ahead of her time, often constrained by early modern American society’s views of women. Readers are sure to remember the climactic ending long after the book is closed.

K is for Knight of Desire

Knight of Desire by Margaret Mallory

I really enjoyed this first novel in a planned series.  I'll read the others when they become available.  Here is a review I wrote of this novel that appeared in Historical Novels Review:
Knight of Desire, the first novel of a planned series entitled All the King’s Men, is set in England and Wales in 1405. Lady Catherine is left widowed after her traitorous husband, Rayburn, joined the rebel forces against their king, Henry IV. Rayburn’s lands were granted to William FitzAlan, a knight who fought bravely and loyally on the side of the king. When William rides to Ross Castle to claim his reward, which includes Lady Catherine, he is surprised and impressed by her headstrong attitude. Catherine is given the choice to either marry William or go to the Tower. The pair marry within the hour. The rocky beginning to their relationship is caused by the great deal of mistrust that exists between them. William is wary of Catherine because she spied for the king and betrayed her own husband. Catherine cannot fully give her heart to William because of the horrible abuse she met at the hand of Rayburn. Slowly the two learn to trust each other, though each time they move forward in their relationship, an incident happens to set them back again. Knight of Desire is a satisfying love story full of emotion with a bit of danger and plenty of passionate love scenes. An entertaining and satisfying read.

J is for James

The Book is Night Women by Marlon James is one of the best books I've read in a long time.  I read it for review for Historical Novels Review awhile back.  Below is the review:

The Book of Night Women is a beautifully written, sweeping tale of Jamaican slavery set in the early 19th century. The story centers on Lilith, a slave born on the Montpelier Estate, a large sugar plantation, where life is ruled by danger and fear. Lilith comes of age and kills a black slave driver who attempts to rape her. This event marks Lilith from the other slaves who begin to both fear and revere her at the same time for they sense that she possess a dark power hidden within her. A group of closely knit women, who call themselves the Night Women, keep their eye on Lilith and bring her into their secret circle. At their meetings, Lilith learns the group is plotting a slave revolt of massive proportion that involves several plantations. She hesitates to participate, but the Night Women see her as a force that could really help their cause, and Lilith is torn between her feelings.

James portrays his dynamic and flawed characters in a complex, stratified society where many boundaries, some known and some unspoken, exist among slaves and their masters as well as among the slaves themselves. The authentic voice of the narrator, who remains a mystery until the end of the novel, moves the story along at a brisk pace. Strong language abounds, and the entire novel is written in a slave dialect which adds to the story, making it a realistic, engaging read. James portrays the violence as it really was, absolutely horrific, and does not hold back. One of the most satisfying parts of the novel is James’s exploration of the power of love to transform a person and change their thinking. This tale of freedom, hope, survival, and unlikely love is unique and will continue to make readers think. Marlon James is an extremely gifted writer whose next book I eagerly anticipate.

I is for I, Elizabeth

I didn't have a book that I've already read for the letter "I," so I am instead posting about a book that I want to read.  I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles has been sitting on my bookshelf for a good two years I'd say.  I've read other books by Miles and have loved them.  For some reason, I just haven't gotten around to reading this one.  I know once I start it, I'll love it.
Here's a summary from Booklist:
Historian Miles' novel is in the form of a memoir that Elizabeth I is writing near the end of her long and amazing life. Through Elizabeth's eyes, the reader sees the life-and-death court intrigues, the religious conflicts, and the prerogatives as well as the high price of power. In addition to being faithful to historical fact, Miles presents a wealth of colorful detail. The personalitiesElizabeth's father, Henry VIII, her sister, Bloody Mary, her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, and the restare vividly portrayed, as are the sights, sounds, and smells of the Tudor era. Miles also interprets the inner woman, from the frightened girl called away from the security of her exile at Hatfield to present herself at court, to the mature queen: scholarly, vain, shrewd, deeply attuned to such things as the language of dress, capable of great passion, but learning never to let her passions rule. Miles weaves Elizabeth's passions throughout, as various courtiers attempt to marry her off, and the men she loves betray her, prove inadequate, or must be sacrificed for the political good. Miles answers in her own way the question of whether the Virgin Queen was really a virgin. Despite its length, this convincing novel never falters. Mary Ellen Quinn

H is for Harper

Karen Harper is quickly becoming one of my new favorite historical novelists.  I had the great priviledge of meeting Karen Harper at the 2009 Historical Novel Society Conference in Illinois last June.  I was able to chat with her a few minutes, and she signed my copy of her novel The Last Boleyn.  In December, I listened to the audiobook version of Mistress Shakespeare, which was incredible.  In fact, reading Mistress Shakespeare inspired me to finally take a class on Shakespeare which I am currently in the middle of.  Our midterm is due tomorrow!  I am anxiously awaiting to begin Harper's latest historical novel, The Queen's Governess.  I just finished reading a James Patterson book for our staff book discussion, so I think I deserve to curl up with a great historical novel!   Below are product descirptions from the publisher of two of her books I have read:

Mistress Shakespeare
In Mistress Shakespeare, Elizabethan beauty Anne Whateley reveals intimate details of her dangerous, daring life and her great love, William Shakespeare. As historical records show, Anne Whateley of Temple Grafton is betrothed to Will just days before he is forced to wed the pregnant Anne Hathaway of Shottery. The clandestine Whateley/Shakespeare match is a meeting of hearts and heads that no one—not even Queen Elizabeth or her spymasters—can destroy. From rural Stratford-upon- Avon to teeming London, the passionate pair struggles to stay solvent and remain safe from Elizabeth I’s campaign to hunt down secret Catholics, of whom Shakespeare is rumored to be a part. Often at odds, always in love, the couple sells Will’s first plays and, as he climbs to theatrical power in Elizabeth’s England, they fend off fierce competition from rival London dramatists, ones as treacherous as they are talented. Persecution and plague, insurrection and inferno, friends and foes, even executions of those they hold dear, bring Anne’s heartrending story to life. Spanning half a century of Elizabethan and Jacobean history and sweeping from the lowest reaches of society to the royal court, this richly textured novel tells the real story of Shakespeare in love.

The Last Boleyn

She Survived Her Own Innocence, and the Treachery of Europe's Royal Courts.

Greed, lust for power, sex, lies, secret marriages, religious posturing, adultery, beheadings, international intrigue, jealousy, treachery, love, loyalty, and betrayal. The Last Boleyn tells the story of the rise and fall of the Boleyns, one of England s most powerful families, through the eyes of the eldest daughter, Mary.

Although her sister, Anne, the queen; her brother, George, executed alongside Anne; and her father, Thomas, are most remembered by history, Mary was the Boleyn who set into motion the chain of events that brought about the family s meteoric rise to power, as well as the one who managed to escape their equally remarkable fall. Sent away to France at an extraordinarily young age, Mary is quickly plunged into the dangerous world of court politics, where everything is beautiful but deceptive, and everyone she meets is watching and quietly manipulating the events and people around them. As she grows into a woman, Mary must navigate both the dangerous waters ruled by two kings and the powerful will of her own family in order to find a place for herself and the love she so deeply desires.

G is for Gregory

By far my favorite historical fiction novelist is Philippa Gregory. I have read all of the books in her Tudor series. A few months ago I finished her latest book, The White Queen, the first book in her new War of the Roses series.  I'm excited about the potential for this new series.  For my birthday about two years ago, my husband bought me all of Gregory's other books.  I have yet to read any of them yet.  They are all lined up neatly on my "to read" shelf on our bookcase.  

Review of The Boleyn Inheritance 
The stories of Lady Jane Rochford, Anne of Cleves, and Katherine Howard are told in Philippa Gregory’s latest tale of the Tudor court, The Boleyn Inheritance.  

Anne of Cleves is Henry’s Bavarian born fourth wife, Catherine Howard, an English teenager that catches Henry’s eye, is his fifth wife, and Jane Boleyn (Lady Rochford) is a lady of Henry’s court whose testimony sent her husband and her sister-in-law, Anne Boleyn, to the scaffold just a few years before.

These three women’s lives are bound together as they all try to survive in a court that is ruled by a man who changes his mind almost by the hour. The novel is full of court intrigue and politics told from each of the three women’s point of view. The change in narrators will keep readers interested in the plight of each woman, even though most will already know the story of who was divorced, beheaded, or survived.