LauraLivenspire's 2011 reading list

Hello, all, I'm new to this group, and will be perusing the TBR lists of others for inspiration for my reading this year. Left to my own devices, I tend to pick an era in history and read it to exhaustion, then move on to the next era of interest, and I suspect my library shows that!

The Running List:
1. Absolution by Murder, Peter Tremayne (finished 1/1/11)
2. Dooms Day Book, Connie Willis (1/4/11)
3. Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks (1/7/11)
4. Gwenhwyfar, Mercedes Lackey (1/9/11)
5. The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown (1/15/11)
6. The Running Vixen, Elizabeth Chadwick (1/18/11)
7. Lavinia, Ursula K. Leguin (1/29/11)
8. The Book of Mercy, Leonard Cohen (1/30/11)
9. Knit Two, Kate Jacobs (2/2/11)
10. Brides of New France, Suzanne DesRoches (2/5/11)
11. The Book of Love, Kathleen McGowan (2/16/11)
12. The People's Queen, Vanora Bennett (2/28/11)
13. The Chef's Apprentice, Elle Newmark (3/6/11)
14. The Expected One, Kathleen McGowan (3/9/11)
15. The Poet Prince, Kathleen McGowan (3/12/11)
16. Juliet, Anne Fortier (3/15/11)
17. The Sheen on the Silk, Anne Perry (3/20/11)
18. The King's Grace, Anne Easter Smith (3/30/11)
19. The Robin & The Kestrel, Mercedes Lackey (4/1/11)
20. Crossed, Nicole Galland (4/12/11)

Zoe was my SantaThing gifter this Christmas, and my first 3 books read in 2011 are/were her choices:

Absolution by Murder, by Peter Tremayne, was a whodunnit set in 8th C Northumbria at a religious debate between the RC's and the Celtic Church. The protagonist is Sister Fidelma, an Irish nun & dalaigh, or judge (of the degree of anruth, she'll have you know!). I enjoyed this thoroughly.

Currently on the go is Dooms Day Book, by Connie Willis, which is a cross between futuristic sci-fi and historical fiction. A young historian gets time-travelled from the present (2054) to round about 1320, and then chaos ensues. I'm not far into the book yet, so not much chaos to report - tune in next time, and I'll tell you how it goes!

Next of my Santa Thing reads is Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, and it is set in 1666 in a small town in England (I assume, the blurb on the back mentions the plague being carried from London to this village).

I have a tendency towards some non-fiction reads as well, but my taste for escapism means that these books tend to either linger unloved on my shelf, or take forever to get through, while I run from novel to novel. So the two NFs I'm working through currently are:

Queens Consort by Lisa Hilton - a brief narrative biography of England's queens and their relationship to the job of Queen, starting with Matilda of Flanders, and terminating with Elizabeth of York; just shy of the difficulties presented by the six wives of Henry VIII, and the further difficulties of his two daughters. I'm about half-way through now, and am trying to read a Queen between novels.

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky. As the title suggests, this is the world's societies as formed by that mysterious substance, salt. I'll get back to you on this one, I'm finding the author's style a bit put-down-able. (Did I mention my taste for escapism?)

So there it is, my first finished book of 2011, the three on the go, and the novel in waiting. I wonder what I'll be reading next week?

I'll certainly be following your thread! Welcome to the group :)

ETA: Oh, and I'm so glad you enjoyed the first book!

Looks good! I think I agree with you on Kurlansky. His The Basque History of the World was definitely put-down-able. I thought Salt was better, but not as good as others like David Gran's The Lost City of Z or nearly any Simon Winchester (especially Krakatoa!

Hi! I'm Mary & am new to this group too. It looks like you and I share a love of historical (and escapist) novels and a penchant for reading a subject of interest into the ground. :) I have been gorging myself on dark fantasy (some of them in the form of graphic novels, a new thing for me) lately, but I'm just about dark-fantasied out, just one or two more that I need to read before finding another area of interest.

Anyway, happy New Year and I will be back soon to see what you think of Dooms Day Book which I tried to read but just couldn't seem to get into, to my great disappointment after all the good things I'd heard about it here.

Welcome to the group, Laura! It looks like your reading year is off to a good start.

Hi Laura and # 5 Mary....glad to see new faces in this group. I just want to chime in that Year of wonders was a great read from last year. I didn't make my top 10 list only because I had so many I had go pare the list down. We read it at our senior citizen book read and it provoked a lively discussion. Hope you enjoy it.

I haven't read Salt but I did read two others by Kurlansky == he's a thorough researcher and will give you everything you wanted to know (and quite a bit you didn't even know to ask) about the subject at hand.

Hi Laura - welcome to the group. I was looking at a Sister Fidelma book today and wondering what they were like. Now I'll be adding them to my reading list. I haven't read The Doomsday Book yet but it's one my must-reads for this year, and I also thought Year of Wonders was excellent.

Welcome! Just thought I would chime in and say that I also thought Year of Wonders was excellent.

Well, I'm pretty far into Dooms Day Book, and it's gotten so that while I was polishing off my homework today, I was half wondering what was going on in my absence. Not good for the homework. I have a deadline coming up that I was feeling pretty sanguine about until today, and now I half wish I hadn't taken the weekend off to read fiction. I'll make it, but the question is more "how high will the blood pressure be when I do?" Thank god this isn't the final draft deadline. I may need to go silent for a couple of weeks. :(

ETA - Doomsday Book is done, and I really enjoyed it. I have a feeling I'm going to want to use the words "necrotic" and "apocalyptic" inappropriately for the next few days. So 2 books down over 3 days.

Welcome to the group. I hope you find it fun, and entertaining. I think I'll put a star on your thread and follow you. I am not as focused in my reading as you are but I do share some of the same interests. We shall see, eh? Happy New Year and great good reading to you!

BTW, we are "neighbors" in that I live just about a half hour north of Seattle. I am greatly in love with this part of North America.

I'm glad you liked Doomsday Book!

Thank you, Maggie. I caught a bit of the Mt Hood / Mt Baker / Mt St Helen's chat in the kitchen thread, and realised you had to be close. I wish for you a reading day tomorrow, and light on the digging. We're supposed to get about 10 cm (roughly 3 inches) of snow overnight, and if you've got much elevation, you probably will get more than that!

I loved The Doomsday Book so I am happy it has found another fan!

Laura, I am quite close to sea level and do not see the snow that many of my neighbors do. Also, I am not a skier and so I do not go to the snow, either. I like the rain and that is what it is doing today. Warmer than it has been by a few degrees and rainy. Just fine by me. A very good reading day.

3. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. The third of my SantaThing gifts. I found the ending to be a surprise, but I've read enough over the years that that is something of a treat. Not a book to read when you're feeling gloomy, as it is an account of how plague operates on the population of a small village; but nonetheless an excellent read, IMHO.

4. Gwenhwyfar by Mercedes Lackey. I enjoy new takes on "The Matter of Britain," and this one was gripping. It read a lot more like a Marion Zimmer Bradley book than a typical Mercedes Lackey book, but that has a lot to do with the women having been close friends, and that ML meant this as a tribute to the late MZB.

I really need to get through those two non-fictions I have on the go - I've looked over my shelves and the greatest number of unread books are more NF.

Maggie,

We are pretty close to sea level as well, and thankfully only got thicker raindrops than usual. And a rainy day = a reading day, so I agree - rain on!

Yay, I'm glad you liked Year of Wonders as well! I really appreciated the fact that the ending was a surprise; I had thought the story was going to go one way but I was much happier with how it actually turned out.

I read March recently and loved it, so I think I need to add Year of Wonders to the wishlist - thanks for the review!

5. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. This was an intriguing one for the ideology behind the chase, and if I ever make it to Washington DC, I'll be sure to go have a peek at some of the sites mentioned. But I noticed something with Angels and Demons that he has done with this book too, which I don't like. The whole chain of events is supposed to have taken place in a 24-30 hour window. I suspect he did this with The DaVinci Code too, but my memory doesn't stretch back that far. However, the chase itself was entertaining, and the exposure to new ideas kept the book from becoming too Clancy-esque, and I now have a long list of things to google.

#20: I now have a long list of things to google

That happens to me quite frequently too. Glad to know I am not the only one!

I got the illustrated version of The Da Vinci Code after reading it the first time. It was wonderful to have the items and placed referenced right there in the book.

6. The Running Vixen by Elizabeth Chadwick. One of her first novels, set in the 12th Century against the political backdrop of Henry II trying to get his barons to accept his daughter, the Empress Matilda, as his heir. The main characters are not genuine historical figures, although some secondary figures are. I really enjoy EC's books, on the whole, and found this to be a worthy early effort. One of my favourite aspects of EC's writing is the way she shows the seams of day-to-day marriage without making it ugly, just real.

#21 - My husband thinks it's quite funny that I have a little notebook by my chair to jot down what needs to be looked up. He also gets a huge kick out of watching me try to figure out what my notes mean, after the fact.

#22 - I haven't seen illustrated copies of any of the books until just this week, but the illustrated Lost Symbol looked very intriguing. I'd rather part with money for one of the illustrated books set in Europe, though - I have a much stronger urge to go there than DC.

#23: I have not read anything by Chadwick yet. One of these days. . .

> 20/24: Things like the crammed timeline started to bug me about the Lost Symbol too (I actually didn't even bother to finish reading it). But the illustrated versions are a smart marketing ploy - I made a point of seeing all the Angels and Demons markers when I visited Rome, and I'm sure it would be nice to see what the places look like while reading, without having to go all the way there. :)

7. Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin. Not having read the Aenid, I'm not clear on how much of that story this book tells, but it appears to be towards the end. Narrated from the POV of Aenas' widow Lavinia, it seems to be an illiustration of pre-Roman country life in Italy, with some notable goings-on along the way. I enjoyed it, but never really lost the sense that I was missing something by not having read Virgil first. So if I were to assign this a rating, I'd say 3 of 5 stars, for making me feel like I didn't do the assigned homework.

8. Book of Mercy by Leonard Cohen. This is a book of modern psalms, and not any narrative at all. Leonard Cohen is very much a not-so-lapsed Jewish spiritualist, which shows in a great deal of his music too (to wit, Hallelujah, which celebrated the weaknesses of King David). I'm going to have to shelve this one with my liturgical works, as opposed to poetry, which I had expected it to be, and which it is not. Having said that, for those who are in the midst of significant soul searching, this might provide some useful reflections. I centrainly intend to use it so, as needed.

#28: Book of Mercy looks like one I would like. Thanks for the recommendation, Laura!

#29, You are most welcome. I have recently (re-)discovered Leonard Cohen, who seems to belong more to the generation just after my parents than either to their generation or mine, and so he seems to have fallen through the cracks in my musical Can-Con education. While his vocal range is limited, he does quite a lot with it, and it's just my kind of voice: gravel soaked in whiskey, smoked lightly with a drizzle of honey.

9. Knit Two, by Kate Jacobs. A light novel with the theme of "We're all women in it together." Not a message I'm gifted at remembering, so a welcome reminder to reach out to my girls, friends and family alike. It's a sequel to The Friday Night Knitting Club, which I haven't read yet, and while I might have felt left out in the first few chapters for not knowing the history of all the characters, that didn't last long. I'm still waffling on whether I need to read the "prequel," but Mount TBR is tall enough that this is not a pressing issue.

10. Brides of New France, by Suzanne Desroches. Historical novel of the experiences of one of the filles du roi sent from the slums of Paris to populate Quebec & Louisiana. This was well-written, and appears to have been well-researched as well, given that the time & place had only a minimal emphasis on literacy, survival being so much more of an issue. I was shocked to learn that King Louis XIV had a bounty payable to the husbands of women who had birthed ten children or more. From my vantage point of being a pampered, literate 21st-Century urbanite with a career that has little to do with pioneer survivalism, this book was a not-so-gentle reminder of what has been accomplished in the past 450-500 years. Thoroughly enjoyed, and destined for my mother's Mount TBR.

#32: I will look for that one too. I can tell your thread is going to be dangerous to the BlackHole!

Laura, .#9 Knit Two....that one's ok, but I definitely think the first one Friday Night Knitting Club was her best. Much better character development, plot, etc. #2 just seemed to drag to me, not much new, just some touchy feely, we're all in this together. Do please try to find time to read #1.

I have Friday Night Knitting Club waiting for my on my shelf. I'll have to read it soon.

@34: Okay, I'll head off to the library this weekend, and keep my eyes open for FNKC. The tone of this response feels a bit like I'm dragging my feet, but really, I got the impression from Knit Two that I'd missed the good book, and caught the second-run sequel. So, FNKC goes on the list, and if I find that one to be better, I'll watch for Kate Jacobs to try something new.

I have a theory about authors and sequels. If the story was so gripping the author couldn't let go, then the sequel / trilogy / series will be pretty good. When the publisher says, "Do it again!" and the author says, "well, I'll try..." s/he is not interested enough to be worth the reading. How can you tell? By reading the next book.

My husband took me book shopping for V-day, and my Mount TBR looks pretty yummy. One I snuck in before that excursion, however, was The Book of Love, by Kathleen McGowan. This counts as my #11, and I found it pretty much a page turner, although now I'm finished, I'm chewing it a bit. In all honesty, I chose this one for the cover - my copy has an image of a rose labyrinth on the cover, which I have been fascinated by for years. Again with starting a series on Book No. 2, but this book doesn't assume you've read the previous installment to keep up - at least, not for the historical parts. It was an interesting time-slip in a way, being simultaneously a historical novel on the subject of Matilda of Canossa, and a contemporary-action novel depicting the continuing saga of discovery which our intrepid Maureen Paschal is involved with. The previous novel was The Expected One, and the next is The Poet Prince. Add them to Mount TBR, too, and we'll see how I like it.

#36: The Book of Love does not look like one for me, but I am glad you enjoyed it, Laura.

#37 - I had read a couple of other similar books that I didn't care for in the least, and was surprised that I did like this one, in retrospect. I have little patience for the "modern descendents of Famous Personage" claim to fame, and the notion that this is the case for the main character would normally have put me off. But, as I said, I really did pick this one because A) the cover had an image I liked (how shallow!) and B) it had an historical element.

#38: I think a lot of readers pick out books for the covers. Nothing to feel shallow about :)

#12 - The People's Queen, by Vanora Bennett. This is a novel based on the high-jinks of Alice Perrers, mistress to Edward III, and the socio-political upheaval that marked her lifetime. She was born during the first great plague to sweep England, and reportedly rose from the peasant classes to the Royal Court, only to anger several powerful men who managed to drive her out. I'm not well-read on this lady, so I can't really comment on how faithful the novel is to the known facts of her life, but based on Ms. Bennett's portrayal of her, I quite like her, even if I wouldn't trust her with anything of value.

13. The Chef's Apprentice, by Elle Newmark.

"It is 1498, dawn of the Renaissance, and Venice teems with rumours about an ancient book believed to hold the secrets of power - Alchemy, love and even immortality. Some will stop at nothing to find it; others will die to protect it.

As intrigue grips Her Most Serene Republic, Luciano, a light-fingered, street-wise orphan, gets caught up in the madness. The doge's enigmatic chef takes him into the palace kitchen as an apprentice, where he is initiated into the chef's deliciously mysterious world - itself alive with dangerous secrets.

After Luciano witnesses an inexplicable murder, he embarks on a perilous journey to uncover the truth. What he discoveres will test his loyalty, show him the dark side of men's souls, and threaten his love for an audacious convent girl. But it will also swing open the shutters of his mind, and leave an indelible mark on his soul."

I really enjoyed this book, but I was hungry the whole way through. If you choose to read it, do so only having first eaten a good filling meal. (Sorry, the touchstone is bringing up a different book by the same title.)

14 & 15. The Expected One, and The Poet Prince, both by Kathleen McGowan. Books 1 and 3 respectively of the series. I found the books to be page turners, well-written and good character development overall. There is a definite conspiracy-theorist at work here, and while I thoroughly enjoyed the fiction, and greatly appreciated the underlying message (Love will conquer all - in all its guises), I wish the author had used a slightly softer touch with her agenda. I would recommend the series to those who like their fiction to be thought-provoking, overall.

16. Juliet, by Anne Fortier. Twenty-five-year-old Julie Jacobs is heartbroken over the death of her beloved Aunt Rose. But the shock goes even deeper when she learns that the woman who has been like a mother to her has left her entire estate to Julie's twin sister. The only thing Julie receives is a key - one carried by her mother the day she herself died - to a safety-deposit box in Siena, Italy. ....

What follows is a romp through some more historical versions of Romeo & Juliet's story than what Shakespeare offered, along with a modern-day hunt for lost treasure. Some of the drama comes off as more than a little far-fetched, but the book was really fun to read, overall. I'd recommend it for a little fluff reading, certainly.

#28 & 30 - I love Cohen's songs and his singing (great description of his voice there) and had not come across Book of Mercy so I will have to look out for that.

17. The Sheen on the Silk by Anne Perry. I have read several of Perry's other books, mostly the Victorian whodunnits with the Pitts as main characters, and found them to be pleasant but not particularly gripping reads. This was blatantly untrue of this book - I seriously considered taking a day off work just to continue reading, and have mentally inhabited 13th Century Constantinople since picking it up.

"Arriving in Contantinople in 1273, Anna Zarides vows to prove the innocence of her twin brother, Justinian, who has been exiled to the desert for conspiring to kill a nobleman. Disguising herself as a eunuch named Anastasius, Anna moves freely about in society, maneuvering close to the key players involved in her brother's fate, including Zoe Chrysaphes, a devious noblewoman with her own hidden agenda, and Guiliano Dandolo, a ship's captain conflicted by his growing feelings for Anastasius. As leaders in Rome and Venice plot to invade Constantinople in another Crusade to capture the Holy Land, Anna's discoveries draw her inextricably closer to the dangers of the emperor's dangerous court - where it seems that no one is exactly who he or she appears to be."

I really enjoyed this book, and it has sparked an interest in Byzantine history and their relationships (or lack thereof) with European powers, and the European Church. My only wish is that there had been an author's note telling me roughly where the known history ended and the fiction began, but then, maybe I wouldn't be so powerfully curious if I knew?

Oh dear, I've fallen behind. No excuse for it, so let me just summarize the three latest reads:

18. The King's Grace by Anne Easter Smith. This is a novel dealing with the last month's of the reign of Richard III and the first several years of Henry VII Tudor's reign. The novel's narrator is Grace Plantagenet, a bastard daughter of Edward IV, of whom, according to the publisher's synopsis, "all history knows ... is that she was an illegitimate daughter of Edward IV and one of two attendants aboard the funeral barge of his widowed queen." The main focus of the novel was the mystery of the two missing princes (Edward & Richard, both sons of Edward IV), and Perkin Warbeck's masquerade as the younger prince, Richard of York. I found that this novel was consistent with AES' previous novels - occasionally slow going, but so rich in historical detail you can almost smell / taste / feel the settings.

I have "A Rose for the Crown" on my teetering TBR pile, too.

19. The Robin and The Kestrel by Mercedes Lackey. After a brief and hectic visit from my parents - themselves avid readers and responsible for several holes on my bookshelves and some mysterious appearances in Mount TBR - I galloped through this book. It is the second book in Lackey's "Bardic Voices" series, which I'm not too familiar with; and is the story of newlywed bards who head out to a city after hearing some disturbing rumours, only to find out that the truth was much worse than originally suspected. As escapist fantasy, this was great fluff reading. As a sermon on the insidious dangers of intolerance and the squelching of civil liberties, it was mildly thought-provoking, in the way that good SF/F can (and should) be.

20. Crossed: A Tale of the Fourth Crusade by Nicole Galland. This was a fun read, dealing with the fourth crusade (circa 1204) in a way that suggests that no-one associated with that botched effort was either competent or deserving of much respect. In summary, instead of heading straight to Jerusalem to liberate it from the Muslims, the Crusaders first sacked and occupied Zara (now in Croatia) and then occupied and sacked Constantinople. Some of the Crusaders may actually have made it to Jerusalem, but to quote the author: "No infidels were hurt in the making of this Crusade."

Galland uses a fairly contemporary voice for all her 13th-Century characters, who in some respects sound almost like they delivered their lines while posting to Facebook from their cellphones, but the plot is sufficiently twisty to be hard to predict, without ever really losing the reader in all the twists. Without wanting to give anything away, I've decided I'd like to meet Jamila (one of the central female characters), on the condition that she not turn her sarcastic and pointed observations on me. Ignoring totally the fact that she's a several-hundred-years-dead fictional character, it seems unlikely that she would spare anyone.

These all sound like something I'm going to have to delve into. That is a period of history that fascinates me, and I'm wanting to get some more. Onto the teetering TBR mountain.

>19 scaifea: If you haven't read it yet, I preferred the first book in the series, The Lark and the Wren.

I am way behind on threads, Laura. Hopefully I can keep up with you from here on out.

#45: I had not heard of that Perry book before. I definitely need to see if I can locate a copy. Thanks for the recommendation!

Just popping in to wish a fellow May 29ther a great day tomorrow! Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Laura!

Happy birthday to one who shares the celebration with my sister and it looks like a host of others. The stars were truly aligned on that day! Enjoy the weekend, and best wishes for another great year.

Happy Birthday, Laura. This is a busy day for 75ers having birthdays--there are half a dozen of you!