The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Title:  The Thirteenth Tale
Author: Diane Setterfield
Length:  432 pages
LOVED IT!

Am I ever going to NOT love a book that I share here?  Quite possibly not, given the history of my “ratings”… anyway…

The Thirteenth Tale is one of those books that I wouldn’t have picked up without it being recommended to me.  It’s hard for me to really say what types of books I gravitate towards anymore, but, honestly, it probably would have taken me a while to stumble across this title on my own.  With that said, I’m EXTREMELY happy that my friend recommended this read.  And I’m also very pleased that I chose this to be my break from my Tudors infatuation right now.

Reclusive author Vida Winter, famous for her collection of twelve enchanting stories, has spent the past six decades penning a series of alternate lives for herself. Now old and ailing, she is ready to reveal the truth about her extraordinary existence and the violent and tragic past she has kept secret for so long. Calling on Margaret Lea, a young biographer troubled by her own painful history, Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good. Margaret is mesmerized by the author’s tale of gothic strangeness — featuring the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess,a topiary garden and a devastating fire. Together, Margaret and Vida confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

And so reads the description on the back cover.  Feral twins?  Ghosts?  Gothic strangeness?  That’s really all that I need to know to automatically be intrigued.  Upon reading even the first few pages, I soon realized that there was going to be much, much more to love about this novel.  The first detail that struck me was the beauty of the language.  Not only does Setterfield use amazing (yet still believable for both the story and characters) vocabulary, but her variance in sentence structure and dialogue are unlike any that I’ve seen recently.  And these are the types of things that excite me.

In addition to telling a compelling, fascinating, and mysterious tale about the odd family living out in Angelfield, Setterfield works in beautiful passages and reflections on the joy of reading.  Our main character and narrator, Margaret Lea, works in her father’s antiquarian bookshop and, as can be expected, loves to read.  As a lifetime book lover and someone who enjoys to write herself, I fully appreciate the difficulty of appropriately capturing the experience of reading in words.  Setterfield makes it look like a breeze.

Now, I just hope that she writes another book very soon!  I hunger for more of her writing.

Have you read this book?  What are your thoughts on it?  Do you have a favorite passage?

Check out The Thirteenth Tale on Amazon.

Monday Quote: Homer’s The Odyssey, fate & free will

Odysseus and the Sirens, Greek Red-Figure Stamnos Vase, c. 480-460 BCE, British Museum

Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame on us gods, for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given.

Zeus in The Odyssey

Louise Gluck reads Crossroads

Happy Sunday!

Fun with words Friday! Ailurophile

As an ailurophile, I would love to have THIS kindle in my house!

ailurophile – noun

1. a person who likes cats; a cat fancier

What’s happening in the world of books…

 

• Tablet & eReader Ownership doubles over Christmas.  Surprised? (http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknewser/tablet-ereader-ownership-doubles-over-christmaspew-research_b19605)
• So, then… Kindle vs. Nook (http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknewser/average-price-for-kindle-book-6-48-nook-8-94_b19728)
• Lifting the veil on love and Islam – a review on a new collection of essays via NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/books/in-love-inshallah-american-muslim-women-reveal-lives.html?_r=1&ref=books)
• Authors of banned books – heroes or no? via Yahoo!/Reuters (http://news.yahoo.com/best-selling-indian-author-says-banned-writers-not-072136803.html)
• Ted Hughes explored his demons not only through poetry – via The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/dec/31/ted-hughes-jaguar-sculpture-sale)
• The future of books, today – via The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/jan/26/future-of-books-today)
• NPR Bestsellers (http://www.npr.org/books/bestsellers/)
• NY Times Bestsellers (http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/overview.html)

 

If you would like me to include a link to any reviews or news from your blog, please contact me at nootherappetite@gmail.com  & I will happily include in an upcoming post.

Author Spotlight: Philippa Gregory

While I have (so far) only read one novel by her (The Other Boleyn Girl), I’m fascinated by anyone who successfully writes engaging, and even relatively believable, historical fiction.  In an effort to familiarize myself more with her work and background, I would like to focus on Philippa Gregory for this week’s author spotlight.

Biography

Philippa Gregory was born, and spent the first two years of her life, in Kenya.  She received a BA in History at the University of Sussex and went on to receive a PhD. in 18th century literature at the University of Edinburgh.  In addition to writing novels, she contributes to newspapers and magazines.  Additionally, she has taught at the University of Durham, University of Teesside, the Open University, and she was made a fellow at Kingston University.

She has written many books, mostly all historical fiction (listed below), and contests that her novels are completely historically accurate, but there has been controversy surrounding this claim.  Historically accurate or not, her novels are well-written and well-loved.

Gregory also does charity work – Gardens for Gambia.  Formed in 1993, the aim of Gardens for Gambia is to provide water for wells located at rural schools in Gambia.  This water helps the schools maintain gardens, which produce vegetables for the schoolchildren to eat and the surplus is sold to raise money for school equipment.  The link brings you to the information provided on Gregory’s official website.

She lives in Yorkshire with her family where she keeps horses and ducks.

Bibliography

Wideacre Trilogy

1. Wideacre (1987)
2. The Favoured Child (1989)
3. Meridon (1990)

Earthly Joys

1. Earthly Joys (1998)
2. Virgin Earth (1999)

Tudor Novels – in historical chronological order

1. The Constant Princess (2005)
2. The Other Boleyn Girl (2001)
3. The Boleyn Inheritance (2006)
4. The Queen’s Fool (2003)
5. The Virgin’s Lover (2004)
6. The Other Queen (2008)

The Cousins’ War

1. The White Queen (2009)
2. The Red Queen (2010)
3. The Lady of the Rivers (2011)

Non-Series

1. A Respectable Trade (1992)
2. The Wise Woman (1992)
3. Fallen Skies (1994)
4. The Little House (1998)
5. Zelda’s Cut (2001)
6. Perfectly Correct (?)
7. Mrs. Hartley and the Growth Center / Alice Hartley’s Happiness (?)

Check out Philippa Gregory’s Amazon page.

Her official website: http://www.philippagregory.com

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Title: The Other Boleyn Girl
Author: Philippa Gregory
Length: 664 pages
Loved It!

As I recently mentioned, I am currently totally enamored with Tudor history – especially as it relates to Anne Boleyn.  For this newfound obsession, I blame the Showtime television series, The Tudors.  So, naturally, as a book lover, I wanted to find some good books related to this period and I recalled, from a few months ago, a friend of mine read many of the Philippa Gregory novels and had favorable things to say about them.

Even though The Other Boleyn Girl isn’t the first in the series (I believe that The Constant Princess is where you’d want to start), I decided to start there – mainly because Barnes & Noble has a slew of them in their bargain book section right now.  Regardless, the book starts off right where I wanted it to… the introduction of the Boleyn girls to King Henry VIII and the chaos that ensues because of the family’s ambition.

While reading this book, it’s important to remember that it’s historical fiction, so I kept reminding myself that the details being presented aren’t necessarily bona fide history.  But the story is presented in such an engaging, entertaining, and suspenseful way that it has only fueled my desire to learn more.  I also enjoyed that this book was told from the point of view of Mary Boleyn, the Boleyn girl who doesn’t usually get as much attention as her sister, Queen Anne Boleyn.  Through Mary’s eyes, the reader gets the infamous story of her sister’s rise and fall, but there are also breaks where the reader travels with Mary to Hever castle or a distant farm.

The description on the back cover also does an excellent job in laying out what to expect to find within its pages:

Two sisters competing for the greatest prize: the love of a king.

When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of the young Henry VIII.  Dazzled by the deadly rivalries of the court, Mary falls in love both with the most powerful man in England and her growing role as an unofficial queen.  She soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her family’s plots as she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her ambitious sister, Anne.  then Mary knows that she must defy her family and her king and take her fate into her own hands.

A rich and compelling tale of love, ambition, lust, and intrigue, The Other Boleyn Girl introduces a woman who survived the most glamorous and dangerous court in Europe by following her heart.

If you have any interest in historical fiction, Tudor history (or just the fictional stories about them), or just want a really excellent and entertaining read – I highly recommend this book!  And I cannot wait to read her other novels, as well.

Check out The Other Boleyn Girl on Amazon.

Monday Quote: for the love of words

I’m just starting this book (The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield) and am already fascinated by all of the beautiful passages about the love of books, words, and reading.  Here’s one of them to help us kick off the week!

There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.

Check out The Thirteenth Tale on Amazon.

Poems about Anne Boleyn by Thomas Wyatt

unknown artist

Thanks to the Showtime series The Tudors, I’ve become quite fascinated with Tudors history – particularly, the wives of Henry VIII.  Knowing that television shows take some great liberties in order to keep a story entertaining, I’m trying to read and learn as much of the actual history as possible.  Given this current fascination of mine, I wanted to share some of Thomas Wyatt’s poetry about Anne.

Enjoy!

Whoso List to Hunt

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, hélas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about:
Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.

V. Innocentia Veritas Viat Fides Circumdederunt me inimici mei

Who list his wealth and ease retain,
Himself let him unknown contain.
Press not too fast in at that gate
Where the return stands by disdain,
For sure, circa Regna tonat.

The high mountains are blasted oft
When the low valley is mild and soft.
Fortune with Health stands at debate.
The fall is grievous from aloft.
And sure, circa Regna tonat.

These bloody days have broken my heart.
My lust, my youth did them depart,
And blind desire of estate.
Who hastes to climb seeks to revert.
Of truth, circa Regna tonat.

The Bell Tower showed me such sight
That in my head sticks day and night.
There did I learn out of a grate,
For all favour, glory, or might,
That yet circa Regna tonat.

By proof, I say, there did I learn:
Wit helpeth not defence too yerne,
Of innocency to plead or prate.
Bear low, therefore, give God the stern,
For sure, circa Regna tonat.

I found these poems on a very interesting site – The Anne Boleyn Files (http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/) – definitely worth checking out!

What’s happening in the world of books…

So, I’ve been really horrible at updating my blog this week.  Oops.  Last weekend was really wonky (which is when I try to write my posts for the week) and then the work week was (is!) too hectic for me to catch up.  At the very least, however, I compiled some good links!  Enjoy!

• Makes you want to just go ahead and publish your book as an eBook, huh? – Amanda Hocking, the writer who made millions by self-publishing online via The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/12/amanda-hocking-self-publishing)
• Despite the appeal of eReaders, this might not mean more people will read – Will More People Read Books Because of E-Books? Publishers Not So Optimistic via Digital Book World (http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/will-more-people-read-books-because-of-e-books-publishers-not-so-optimistic/ )
• I really, really, really love lists of “must reads” – 100 Essential Reads for the Lifelong Learner
  (http://www.onlineschools.org/2009/11/03/100-essential-reads-for-the-lifelong-learner/)
• Looking forward to reading some great poetry in 2012! Not Your Parents’ Poems via NPR
  (http://www.npr.org/2012/01/13/144924564/not-your-parents-poems-a-2012-poetry-preview)
• 2012 Edgar Award Nominees Announced via Publisher’s Weekly
  (http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/awards-and-prizes/article/50248-2012-edgar-award-nominees-announced.html)
• Bestsellers on NPR (http://www.npr.org/books/bestsellers/)

If you would like me to include a link to any reviews or news from your blog, please contact me at nootherappetite@gmail.com  & I will happily include in an upcoming post.