Review: Persona Non Grata

Persona Non Grata is the third book in Ruth Downie's Medicus series, after Medicus and Terra Incognita (links go to my reviews).

In this installment, Ruso, a medic in the Roman army, heads home to Gaul in response to a letter from his family, with his "barbarian" lover Tilla in tow. Once home, he finds out that no one really wants him there. Things go from bad to worse, as they always seem to do around Ruso, when the creditor he's trying to negotiate with is murdered in Ruso's home. Further complications arise: Tilla gets caught up with the wrong crowd (aka Christians), Ruso's half-sister falls in love with a gladiator, and his stepmother keeps trying to fix him up with their wealthy neighbor.

I loved the first one and liked the second one, but thought it had lost a bit of its luster. Now with the third book, I was a little bored. It took me a while to get through it, as I kept losing interest (partly due to my own lack of interest in reading in general, I'll admit). For starters, I felt more annoyed by Ruso and Tilla's exploits than intrigued. Ruso is so hapless, it was hard to root for him. And, out of her element, Tilla seemed a little shrewish, not the feisty heroine from the first two books. There were also many, many secondary characters to keep track of. In the midst of this, the mystery seemed to get lost.

Other readers, especially those in a better reading mood than I, may disagree. I still highly recommend the first book and think there was a lot to like in this one (the setting, in particular). I just expected something more.

Buy Persona Non Grata: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Ruth Downie on Amazon.

I did really like this slideshow on the author's website of some of the real places in this book.

Note: I received Persona Non Grata from LibraryThings' Early Reviewer program.

Review: Captive Queen

Eleanor of Aquitaine was a fascinating historical figure, one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Europe during the Middle Ages. She was the Duchess of Aquitaine, Countess of Poitiers, Queen of France, Queen of England (though not both of those at the same time), a crusader, a sponsor of writers and troubadours, a wife (twice), mother of ten (maybe 11) children (two with Louis VII of France, the rest with Henry II of England), and, at the end of her life, a nun. At a time when most women were illiterate chattel, she was a influential and accomplished woman in her own right. It's no wonder that so many books about her life are out already, with more coming this year.


So, with such fascinating subject matter to work with, why did I find Alison Weir's Captive Queen so uninteresting?

I won't go so far as to call it boring - the subject matter was enough to keep me going - but it was close. One of the biggest problems: the book is written in third person from Eleanor's perspective, but since the queen was in prison for years, there are vast stretches where all the action happens off screen.

The writing is also really clunky in places (see A Reader's Respite's review for some great examples) and there were far more sex scenes than I needed to read.

If you're an Eleanor fanatic or just a Plantagenet junkie, you might want to check Captive Queen out of your local library. But there's no need, I think, to run out and buy it when it comes out tomorrow (7/13).

Buy Captive Queen: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine on Amazon.

I received this book through the Librarything Early Reviewers program.

Review: Glimmerglass

Glimmerglass by Jenna Black is the first book in a new young adult fantasy series.


After her alcoholic mother embarrasses her one last time, Dana Hathaway runs away to Avalon to meet the father she's never met. Avalon is the only city on Earth that exists in both the human world and the magical world of Faerie. Dana's dad is a big deal Fae there and is in the running to be part of the city council. But Dana has no idea that in Avalon, she's not just some teenager - she's a powerful being in her own right, a Faeriewalker, and possibly the key to anyone hoping to gain power in Avalon.

I really loved the world Black has created in this book. Who wouldn't want to visit Avalon? The idea that there is just one place in the world where magic and technology overlap is really quite delicious.

Dana was a bit of difficult character to click with, but I can't fault her for that. She's going through a lot and I think she's doing her best to handle it all. She certainly notices the cute boys, though, even in the middle of a bad situation.

At the end of the book, though, I was just left with such an "oh, that was it?" feeling. The whole book really just felt like the lead up to something else, presumably the next book in the series. This isn't too say that there's no action in the book. A lot happened, actually, but it just didn't seem to go anywhere.

In the end, I'll just say that Glimmerglass was a fun book, but it could have been much more. I look forward to the next book in the series, though and hope that it lives up to the promise of the setting.

Glimmerglass was released yesterday (5/25).

Buy Glimmerglass (Faeriewalker, Book 1)

Review: A Corpse at St. Andrew's Chapel

I love medieval murder mysteries. That's not surprising - I've written about several in the past here, including the Dame Frevisse series, the Brother Cadfael series, and mysteries by Ariana Franklin and Sharon Kay Penman. So it is with much happiness and not much surprise that I really enjoyed this new one: A Corpse at St. Andrew's Chapel: The Second Chronicle of Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon by Mel Starr.


Publisher's Description:

Alan, the beadle of the manor of Bampton, had gone out at dusk to seek those who might violate curfew. When, the following morning, he had not returned home, his young wife Matilda seeks out Master Hugh de Singleton, surgeon and bailiff of the manor.

Two days later Alan’s corpse is discovered in the hedge, at the side of the track to St. Andrew’s Chapel. His throat has been torn out, his head half-severed from his body and his face, hands, and forearms lacerated with deep scratches.

Master Hugh, meeting Hubert the coroner at the scene, listens carefully to the coroner’s surmise that a wolf had caused the great wound. And yet ... if so, why is there so little blood?

From the title, you can see that this is the second book in a series. Don't let that put you off - I had no trouble diving into it. Master Hugh was a great character - sincere and intelligent but with a good sense of humor. I liked getting to know him and rooted him on in the hint of a love story that ran as a sub-plot in the book.

After reading this book, I found out that the books publisher is a Christian publisher. If I had know this beforehand, I am fairly certain it would have discouraged me from requesting it. I'm glad I had no idea. For faith-phobes, don't worry: there is no evangelism or overt preaching. Personally, I found that the small amount of religion present in A Corpse at St. Andrew's Chapel to be more of an acknowledgment of the prominent role the church played in people's lives during this era than anything else.

If you, like me, enjoy medieval mysteries, you will like A Corpse at St. Andrew's Chapel. I highly recommend it.

Buy A Corpse at St. Andrew's Chapel: The Second Chronicle of Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon on Amazon.

I received this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

Review: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

It is 1950 and Flavia de Luce, an 11-year-old aspiring chemist, has found a dead body on the lawn of her family’s estate. Deciding that it’s the most interesting thing that’s ever happened to her, the precocious Flavia decides to beat the police at their own game and solve the mystery herself, especially when suspicion falls on her reclusive father.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie reminded me of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events books, with its gothic mood and plot twists. With her sharp wit and eagerness to prove she was smarter than the adults, Flavia reminded me of Harriet the Spy (the character). Unlike the Lemony Snicket books or Harriet the Spy, Sweetness was written as an adult book. For me, this book would have been much stronger had it been aimed at teens, instead. While the subject matter (including murder, depression, and PTSD) was adult, I felt like the writing was too young, maybe because the story is told from Flavia's point of view.

I think this book is really a matter of taste. Harriet the Spy always annoyed me and Flavia was no different. But I think a lot of people will really like this book. I just wasn’t one of them.

Here are some other (favorable) opinions:
The Guardian
Entertainment Weekly
Lesa's Book Critiques
A Bookworm's World
Book-a-rama

In addition, in 2007, author Alan Bradley won the Debut Dagger Award of the Crimewriters’ Association for The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I think I am in the minority opinion on this one.

Buy The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie on Amazon.

Visit Alan Bradley’s website.

Review: The Hunger Games

I'm going to be pretty unequivocal in my opinion here: I loved The Hunger Games. 

Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.

I had read so many glowing reviews of The Hunger Games before I read it, I was worried I wouldn't like it after all, but I did. The plot and the writing, as befits a so-called young adult book, are straightforward, but just suck you in and make it hard to put this book down. I say "so-called young adult" because this is a very violent book, but I liked that Suzanne Collins didn't feel like she had to tone it down.

Now, all the good stuff said, I'll be nitpicky and point out the annoying stuff in the story: Katniss is emotionally clueless and I wanted to give her a good shake at several points in the story. There's a reliance on a deus-ex-machina plot device that I found a little lazy. And, as Stephen King pointed out in his review*, this book will probably remind adult readers of a lot of other dystopian future novels.

But, who cares? This is a good book. I loved it. You'll love it, too. Read it.

Buy The Hunger Games on Amazon.

Look out for the upcoming sequel, Catching Fire!

* Don't read the comments on King's review, they will make you cry. In the review, King jokingly makes a comment about that Bachman guy. Bachman is one of King's pseudonyms, a fact of which I am sure King is aware. The commenters either don't grasp the concept of a joke, or don't know that the Stephen King writing the review is, yes, that Stephen King.

Friday Update

It's been a while since I've written one of these and I got some new reads this week, so I thought it was a good time to do an update. Then I read Presenting Lenore's great post about authors requesting books. The comments on that one (over a 100 when I last checked) ended up covering a broad range of topics including complaints from authors about bloggers who ask for free books and then never review them. So I just want to make this clear: I buy (or check out from the library) the vast majority of books that I talk about on my blog. On the rare occasion when I get a book for free, I talk about it in one of these preview posts not to brag, but to give the book additional publicity and to talk about how excited I am to read it.

Okay, onto the good stuff - books!


My book club picked our next book: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

When Margaret Lea opened the door to the past, what she confronted was her destiny.

All children mythologize their birth...So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist.

The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself -- all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain. Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter's story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission.

As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized. It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire.

Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling but remains suspicious of the author's sincerity. She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

Hopefully I'm not stepping on Alea's toes (for those of you who don't read her blog, Pop Culture Junkie, Alea does these fantastic Lookalike posts about similar book covers) by bringing this up, but I really like this cover and when I went to the bookstore to buy it, I saw another book that struck me as being similar-looking: The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay.

Do you see a similarity or is it just me?

Eighteen years old and completely alone, Rosemary arrives in New York from Tasmania with little other than her love of books and an eagerness to explore the city. Taking a job at a vast, chaotic emporium of used and rare books called the Arcade, she knows she has found a home. But when Rosemary reads a letter from someone seeking to “place” a lost manuscript by Herman Melville, the bookstore erupts with simmering ambitions and rivalries. Including actual correspondence by Melville, The Secret of Lost Things is at once a literary adventure and evocative portrait of a young woman making a life for herself in the city.

This sounds intriguing, though the reviews I read were lukewarm, so maybe I'll see if I can find this one at the library.



From LibraryThing's Early Review program, I got The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. (I'd like to point out that this is not actually an "early" book; its been out for several months.)

Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.

I am so excited to read this book! I've heard so much about it from everywhere, it seems. Here's what My Friend Amy and Maw Books had to say about it, and word from Presenting Lenore about the sequel!

Happy Friday, everyone, and join me tomorrow for the Read-a-Thon!

Review: A Song in Stone

A Song in Stone by Walter H. Hunt doesn’t cover much new ground, at least not to anyone who has read Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code or any other of the many Holy Grail books. But it is a thrilling read that I didn’t want to put down.

In A Song in Stone, Scottish TV personality Ian Graham passes out in Rosslyn Chapel, only to wake up in 1307 as a Knights Templar initiate on a pilgrimage. As characters from his past (future?) pop in to rather cryptically give him clues about his journey, Ian struggles to figure out why he’s there and how to get home. The only thing that Ian knows for sure is that he’s the only person who can hear “the music.”

I found parts of this book pretty confusing—I never really did get what the music was and how the composer couldn’t hear it, but Ian could—but it all went so quick, it was easy to keep reading and get caught up in the story without getting bogged down in the details. I liked the characters quite a bit, especially the supporting cast of Rob and Rodney, which helped. Ian was a bit of a whiner, but who am I to judge, having never been forced to go back in time 700 years? There’s also a strong theme of faith in this book, in addition to the New Age ideas, that I thought was interesting.

The biggest weak spot was, for me, the ending. I just didn’t buy the secondary character’s motivation, much less the deus-ex-machina plot point that brought him there. The book ended too quickly and could have used a more in-depth look at the quest’s outcome.

Criticism aside, anyone who liked The DaVinci Code (or even mystical time travel á la Outlander) will certainly enjoy this fantasy.

Thanks to the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program for the opportunity to read this book.

Buy A Song in Stone on Amazon.

PS: Here's an interesting side note for those of you who are as nerdy as we are at my house. A Song in Stone is published by Wizards of the Coast Discoveries, the book publishing arm of the famous role-playing game maker.

Preview: Museum of Human Beings

My newest LibraryThing Early Reviewers book arrived this weekend. It is Museum of Human Beings by Colin Sargent. Since I am a little busy right now (see my earlier post about what I should be doing), it will probably take me a little while to read and review it. It looks really interesting, though.

The Publisher's description on Amazon:

From deprivation in the wilderness to the lavish courts of European nobility, this poignant historical novel explores the life and quest of Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, the son of Sacagawea. After the famed Lewis and Clark expedition and the death of his mother, Jean-Baptiste was brought up as Clark's foster son. He was eventually paraded throughout Europe as a curiosity from the wilds of America, labeled as a half gentleman and half animal, entertaining nobility as a concert pianist. Jean-Baptiste returns to North America with a burning desire to create his own place in the New World. In doing so he returns to the heart of the American wilderness on an epic quest for ultimate identity that brings sacrifice, loss, and the distant promise of redemption.

While it won't be out until November, you can pre-order Museum of Human Beings at Amazon now.

Review: Richard Bangs' Adventures with Purpose

Richard Bangs’ Adventures with Purpose by Richard Bangs

The concept for this book is great and most of the adventures are amazing. The book is full of good stories and compelling personal journeys. Many of the places and stories in this book are fascinating. There were many highlights in this book for me –like the trip down the Neretva River in Bosnia or visiting an isolated village in Papua New Guinea. I found the last chapter of the book—a quick sketch of an African safari—to be touching.

At issue for me, unfortunately, is the writing. It took me over a month to read Adventures with Purpose and I struggled to finish it. Bangs is clearly a storyteller at heart and I imagine his wit comes across better in person than it does on the page. Bangs is a very casual writer and his writing doesn’t hang together very well. I think if the editing had been better it would have vaulted this book to the next level, because the bones of a great book are here.

After struggling to stay involved with the book, I asked my husband (who is also a voracious reader and is unlike me an outdoorsman) to read Adventures. He, too, found it difficult to get through and gave up about a quarter of the way through.

The first several chapters highlighted the plight of places/people in need of help. In the first chapter, for example, takes Bangs to the Nile, where he explores work to bring the crocodile back from the brink (see photo at top, from a NY Times article). In another, very interesting chapter, he visits the Moken people of Thailand’s Andaman Islands, who are struggling to recover from the devastating 2004 tsunami. There was a good mix in these chapters of both environmental/ecological and humanitarian concerns to which Bangs brings attention.

I was really disappointed, then, when the book lost this focus on helping. Richard Bangs’ definition of purpose is broader than I expected, but I thought that once the scope expanded to include stories of personal purpose, the book bogged down. The chapters on mountain climbing, in particular, were indulgent and out of place in this book—especially when there so much other material Bangs could have explored in more depth in some of the other chapters. Bangs, in my opinion, should have cut the number of chapters in half and put more energy and information into the remaining chapters.

In the end, I am torn about whether to recommend this book or not. There are so many good things to say about Adventures but the overall product is spotty. Adventures with Purpose is also a syndicated public television show; I would be interested in checking it out. Find out more about it and Richard Bangs at his website here.

Currently Reading

I have two books I'm reading right now to review. One is Adventures with Purpose by Richard Bangs -- its an adventure travel book in which the author visits places in order to bring attention to either an ecological or humanitarian crisis there.

The other book I'm reading is Last Days of Krypton by Kevin Anderson. Its not something I would normally pick up (I actually got it for my husband to read, but he is too busy with school starting) but I'll see how it goes!

Out today - American Wife

Just a reminder that Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife is available today. I reviewed it here and also linked to an editorial from Maureen Dowd here.

Book Review: Silent But Deadly

Silent But Deadly: Another Lio Collection
by Mark Tatulli

This was the second collection of – and my first introduction to – Lio comics and Mark Tatulli. According to the publisher, Lio is a “morbidly mirthful pantomime comic strip.” It is the exploits – told mostly in illustrations, with little dialogue – of a strange little boy and his friends, including a squid and his Undead Bunny (think Uglydoll). Basically, imagine Calvin and Hobbes on drugs. And I mean that nicely.

I thought the illustrations, especially the full color Sunday strips, were well done. (My husband was less kind; he thought they were somewhat average.) My favorite strips were the one-off’s – Lio discovering a sunken ship at the bottom of his inflatable pool or setting a restaurant’s lobsters free. The longer storylines and arcs were just okay in comparison. I didn’t get Lio’s adoration of Eva Rose, the mean girl in his class, and the comics with his clueless father fell flat for me. In general, too, I would say that, for me, many of the strips were sweet or amusing but that very few of the strips were laugh out loud funny. I think, though, that fans of Emily the Strange will feel right at home in Lio’s world.

Book Review: American Wife: A Novel

In American Wife: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld, our heroine is Alice Blackwell, a mother, former librarian, and well-liked First Lady. She is married to Charlie Blackwell, a member of a wealthy, politically connected family. He is a born-again Christian, a teetotaler, and the hawkish, controversial current president. Sound familiar?

To a certain degree, I knew what to expect going in to this book – I knew it was based on Laura Bush and I knew the bare bones of her life story. What I didn’t know was how compelling this book would be. It’s not some trashy story about one woman’s tragedy or a smear campaign against the president. Instead, it’s a thoughtful, interesting look at a woman in a powerful position -- how she got there and how she became the woman she is today.

American Wife is structured into three parts; the first two focused on Alice’s childhood in Wisconsin and the early years of her relationship with Charlie. The final section takes place during current events – a Supreme Court nomination and the Middle East war are at the center of the character’ attention. By far, I preferred the first two sections of the book over the last section, which felt like a lot of wishful thinking about the real First Lady. The early years are filled with interesting characters – the stand-out for me was Alice’s grandmother Emilie Lindgren – and emotional situations. In comparison, the last section, which takes place during current events, felt jumpy and forced.

Even with its flaws, this is a great read and I would definitely recommend it. Thank you to the Librarything Early Reviewer program for the opportunity to read this book before publication.