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 Do you recall, like I do, all those kids in school who found history boring and flunked it time and time again? It probably still happens. Maybe that’s the fault of the school system. Memorizing dates, learning the fascinating inner workings of parliament (heavy sarcasm), or, for the Canadian school kid, the Family Compact was all about: those topics are enough to make any kid’s eyes glaze over.
So, how did some of us come out of school interested in history? Particularly, for me, English history?
One word: fiction.
There you have it, another good reason to encourage kids to read novels. Fiction did it for me, particularly Jane Austen, and the fascinating glimpse into the past I got while reading her books. When I read Pride & Prejudice for the first time, along with adoring Jane’s lovely prose, I felt like those people in the novel lived and breathed, and it gave me a sense of her time. No, she did not include specific events, or write about issues, but the aura of the era, so to speak,oozed from the pages.
So I took some college courses, English fiction courses, yes, but straight history too, and I read more authors: Maria Edgeworth, George Eliot, the Bronte sisters, Sir Walter Scott, and many others. I took a German culture course and read Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther. Each new book gave me more of what I crave; that window to the past, a little slice of a life lived in an era that felt, to me, bigger, more romantic, wilder, with more possibilities. It seemed that the very lack of knowledge of the world was a boon to people then, because they had more to explore, more to imagine.
Then, in my quest for more reading material, I found Regency romances, and in the hands of the most skillful of modern writers, (Mary Balogh, Jo Beverley) I found that world again, the lovely imaginative history. And from there, I decided I could write it. Writing historical fiction entails research, and so I’m googling history and searching the library, working everything I learn into the fine fabric of historical romance-mystery. My own little slice of heaven.
Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark (April 2009 – Sourcebooks Casablanca) took me down so many fascinating historical roads… I learned about the abolition movement in Georgian England (the Lady Anne series is set in 1786 during the rein of George III), and about the dreadful events on the Zong slave ship. Sometimes historical research is not only fascinating but deeply troubling or moving. Lady Anne and the Ghost’s Revenge (August 2009 – Sourcebooks Casablanca) allowed me to research the fascinating but dangerous world of smuggling in Cornwall, and Lady Anne and the Gypsy Curse (November 2009 – Sourcebooks Casablanca) took me to Kent in England, where I learned about how gypsies were often the object of scorn and mistreatment, but in Georgian times they were actually a vital part of the local economy! I love passing on what I learn, weaving it into the plot and using the facts to support the fiction.
So, I urge you all, you mothers and fathers (and grandparents and aunts and uncles)… don’t solely focus on math skills and science courses. Encourage your kids to read for pleasure! Introduce them to Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott. Who knows, they may turn out to be writers of historical fiction, and we all know the world needs more historical fiction!
 Etta Place, notorious lover of the Sundance Kid, is one of history’s mysteries. Both her origins and her fate are completely unknown despite many guesses. Etta is given new life in this novel as a young Philadelphia debutante. Forced from her home at her father’s death, Lorinda Jameson becomes Etta Place and finds a refuge with scandalous criminals. A master horsewoman and sharpshooter with a gentle manner, Etta is perfect for assisting with train robberies and keeping hold of everyone’s money. Her circumstances constantly change, but Etta remains a strong, compassionate character throughout this engaging novel.
In this novel, Etta’s imagined story is given life through fictional letters, diary entries, and newspaper clippings. Since so little is actually known about the real life Etta, I really liked this aspect of the book and felt that I could imagine these events actually happening more than if perhaps Kolpan had kept the story as a diary. The only ones I didn’t like were Harry Longbaugh’s letters to his father. In truth I didn’t really like Harry (the Sundance Kid) much himself. He remained a very shadowy character despite Etta’s love for him. The rest of the outlaws were similar, although I did like the women, Laura Bullion and the little Native American girl.
In fact, I’d say the character of Etta is the best part of this novel. She is strong, compassionate, independent, and stubborn. She deals with each issue with grace and dignity, even when she is required to fight for her life. I think her character is really what holds this novel together. I also particularly enjoyed the inclusion of Eleanor Roosevelt. Although all of this is fictional, I quite liked the glimpse into what her youth may have been like. I also was glad that Etta spent time in the East so that the author could portray more of the country than the initial description seemed to entail.
Overall, this was a pretty good work of historical fiction. The plot didn’t entirely captivate me and some of the characters were weak, but I enjoyed reading it.
Buy Etta: A Novel on Amazon.
Thanks to my messed up time schedule, I’m awake early enough that I have some time to spend in the Salon. I spent yesterday traveling from the UK to the USA through France. It was a decent trip except for the hour we spent landing at the very end. I absolutely hate flying and I hate it even more when we’re not landing when I’ve been told we’ll land but flying around in circles in turbulent air dropping 100 feet at a time, especially when the pilot is communicating in French rather than also translating into English like he had been before. I need to learn more languages! Then my second suitcase took half an hour to turn up after I thought they’d finished with the baggage, which was very stressful. I always worry that they’ll have lost my things on a connecting flight but I escaped this time, albeit with a ripped suitcase. Never mind, I have my things and that’s all that matters.
I had four books on the flights with me, but I only managed to get through half of one, Moonheart by Charles de Lint. I’m not totally in love with it, but I like it quite a bit. I don’t normally bring books for review to read on my flights because I know I’ll be so stressed that I’ll have no chance of focusing. The rest of the reading I brought reflects this:
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Her Secret Fantasy by Gaelen Foley
So, with nearly 12 hours of traveling, why did I only read 300 pages? Easy, I was watching movies. I’m a little too poor to go to the cinema very frequently these days (although Keith’s unexpected bonus meant we went to see The Young Victoria last week!), so I always go for it when it comes to seeing movies like Slumdog Millionaire included in the price of my flight. I loved that one, by the way. I also watched Australia which was lovely but not exactly spectacular and just a little too long, so I can see the validity of its rating.
Today I’ll be reading Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn and very possibly Kitty Goes to Washington. The blog tour for the last two books, Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand and Kitty Raises Hell will be stopping here on Wednesday. I’ve come home to 37 ARCs. I’m not behind on any of them yet but I need to get cracking. I also have 4 books to get through for my dissertation, need to study for my Latin and palaeography exams and at least think about my source analysis essay in the next two weeks. Oh, and I’m behind on reviews! I have some absolutely fabulous books waiting for me here though, like The Tory Widow by Christine Blevins and The Traitor’s Wife by Susan Higginbotham, so I’m not complaining!
Have a lovely week everyone!
 No way I’d ever be able to summarize this chunkster, so off to Amazon we go:
“When two young women in France of 1790 discover the Montglane Chess Service in Montglane Abbey, they recognize its mystic ability to provide anyone playing it with unlimited power and desperately scatter its pieces around the world. But in 1972, computer expert Catherine “Cat” Velis is hired to recover the chess pieces–and is caught up in a nefarious, globe-spanning conspiracy.”
Yeah, sounds good, right? That’s what I hoped. Apparently people do like this book. I was not one of them.
Let me first say that this is a genre that I don’t like. I didn’t like The Da Vinci Code, although I will be honest, I liked it better than this. The book is centered around chess, a game I don’t even understand. The reviews assured me that would be okay. The book also seems full of math and science, my two least favorite subjects, although I certainly recognize their importance. Now, throw in a convoluted plot that I couldn’t keep track of, 64 characters, none of whom I liked and most of whom seemed like coincidental famous people name-dropping, a journey that is supposed to seem threatening and dangerous but never made sense to me, some mediocre writing, and a couple of unbelievable love stories, and you’ve got this book.
I knew I’d had enough when the author suggested that a blue velvet cloth survived for 1000 years. Let me tell you why this bothers me. We have no evidence for velvet even existing before the 14th century and quite simply, fabric hardly ever survives this long unless in special preserved circumstances. Somehow, I’m doubting that this velvet cloth was buried in a water-logged, oxygen free environment for most of its existence, and there’s no way such old fabric could survive in the open air without serious preservation, let alone be passed around from country to country for two hundred years. Nitpicky, maybe, but blatantly wrong details like that just throw me out of a book completely.
This book was just not for me. I finished it because I have the sequel for review. It clearly is meant for someone else, probably someone who likes thrillers, chess, and science and also does not particularly know much about history or archaeology. If that’s you, you should try this book out. It’s certainly not me. I can’t recommend this book.
If you liked The Eight, I want to know, so I can link to you. I hate posting a negative review without counterbalancing it.
 In this AU America, superheroes have been outlawed for nearly 10 years. War with Russia is imminent. Nixon is still president. Comic books feature pirates. And someone has it out for the former superheroes, starting with the Comedian, who dies on the first page. The suspicious Rorshach sets about warning the last of the masked marauders and gaining allies as it becomes slowly clear just what is happening to this world.
I’m not even sure how to review this. It is my very first graphic novel, and as of writing I haven’t yet seen the film. This story encompasses so much. I found that I liked the graphic novel format far more than I expected to. I liked how the panels revealed images to the careful observer and how I could picture all of the characters in my head while still enjoying a story. (I can never picture characters in regular books in my head). I found it extremely interesting that only one of these superheroes had actual powers, and he’s a far cry from Superman or Batman. I loved the allegorical pirate comic story and how it sat neatly alongside the main story to add another perspective and shadow all of the emotions that the comic elicited.
I enjoyed getting to know these characters and their stories. The book isn’t all that long but is far longer than I expected it to be, and took a similar amount of time to read. I didn’t mind, and rather approached it by reading each of the 12 issues separately. I think I would have gone mad reading it in serialized format though, given that most of the issues focus on one or two characters. I know I’d have been dying to figure out what happened to the rest of them. I was definitely sucked in. Mostly, I am now looking forward to watching the film and reading this over again to get the full nuances of meaning that I know I missed the first time.
This is excellent and I would definitely recommend it. It has even made me consider reading more graphic novels. They might not be as deep as this one, but I really enjoyed the format as a nice change.
Buy Watchmen on Amazon.
 Catherine Howard’s powerful family has contrived to put her in the constant gaze of King Henry VIII, relying on her beauty and youth to advance their own positions. When Henry proposes, their goal is accomplished, but what of Catherine? As queen, she is thrown into a complicated political world, well out of her depth, with a husband she hardly knows and a secret love for a man she can now never have. On top of this, many figures from her dissolute youth begin taking advantage of her new position, starting Catherine’s slow spiral down into fear and uncertainty.
This YA novel is gripping. I knew Catherine’s inexorable end, but I found her very easy to care for. I think that while Libby tries to make her sound mature and composed, as if Catherine believed that of herself, there is still a very young girl under there. Catherine is haunted by her inability to get pregnant, by people from her scandalous past, and by the memory of her cousin Anne Boleyn, just like her only on a grander scale. She never really seems to know Henry and even though she tries, genuinely fails at being a comfort to him. It’s clear she knows little of what is required of her as a wife and she is constantly hounded and ruled by her Howard relatives, all of whom distance themselves from her when the facade they created collapses. Catherine does very little as queen but get herself into trouble as a consequence. The impending doom rears its head with her affair as Catherine indulges her youthful love by telling herself that she needs a baby. She seems to know that this is treason, but like any teenager, cannot quite comprehend the magnitude of her crime until it is brought home to her violently.
I also particularly enjoyed the depiction of the Tudor court. As a girl, Catherine herself is very enamored of it and we see the splendors through her eyes. Pageants, dances, costumes, and dresses are all very exciting for her. It provides a wonderful sense of atmosphere and I felt as though I could see the dancing and the costumes.
This is a compelling work of historical fiction on Henry’s fifth queen. It is marketed to a YA audience but is easily enjoyed by adults as well. I recommend it, especially if you are interested in the Tudor period.
Buy The King’s Rose on Amazon.
You can see the fateful letter from Catherine Howard to Thomas Culpepper here. I was excited to be able to read it having had quite a bit of training in doing just that. For those who find these 16th century characters a jumble, you can find her signature, “Katheryn”, on the right side of the page an inch or so up.
 When she was 16 and impressionable, Lady Charlotte Hayward made a very serious mistake and wound up giving birth to an illegitimate child. Her pregnancy was hushed up, with even her father remaining ignorant, and her child given away, much to her sadness and regret, but Charlotte knows she will now never marry and becomes an expert at Not Getting Married. Meanwhile, Darius Carsington has never had any desire to get married, but has devoted his life to the pursuit of science and the pursuit of loose women for whom he will never care. His father, a despairing earl with one last son left to marry off, gives Darius the estate next to the Haywards’ and instructs him to make it turn a profit within one year, at which point he will be permitted to remain single. When these two meet, they discover that they aren’t going to remain single for very long and perhaps most importantly that things lost can sometimes be found.
First of all, this book is too funny, or at least I thought so. Darius’s unbending attitude in the beginning of the book is absolutely laughable as he’s made into almost a caricature of a man who avoids commitment and well-born young ladies. Take this quote:
And in the end, being a servant of Logic, he knew he was doomed. He must go to her and endure the unendurable, a fate worse than torture, maiming, plague, pestilence, famine, or death.
He must APOLOGIZE. (p. 155)
Luckily, he learns how to behave fairly quickly. I found myself laughing frequently. This book isn’t particularly well-written, but it has a wry humor to it that makes it a pleasure anyway. I have to say that the plot amused me as well. Both characters determinedly push away their attraction to one another and to everyone else, but as with all romance novels, it’s easy to tell where it’s leading. I liked in particular how Charlotte is portrayed as smart and stubborn. She lacked brothers as a child and was thus taught everything her father knew, so she is convinced she can go her own way through life without any problems. She probably could. I also really liked that this attracted Darius so much. It’s nice when men go for the smart women, isn’t it?
I’d probably recommend this to another romance reader. I doubt it’s going to compel anyone to read the genre, but I liked it.
Buy Not Quite A Lady on Amazon.
 As you regular readers may have realized, I’m a little overwhelmed by life and school right now, so my mom, Carolyn, volunteered to help me fulfill my commitments by reading and reviewing Galway Bay for the blog tour today. I was happy because she loved it and she’s told me that she now wants to read more historical fiction epics! This from a woman who has previously informed me that if it wasn’t set in the modern day, she wasn’t interested. I think we have found out where my love of history comes from, and I think that says a lot about the quality of Galway Bay !
My mom has written guest posts for me before, but this is her first blog tour, so I hope you’ll give her a warm welcome. I can only hope that I love this book as much as she did!
Galway Bay is the story of Honora Kelly and her family. It starts in Ireland and ends in the United States. You travel with them from 1839 to 1893. It takes you through the hardships and joys in their lives.
I can’t begin to tell you how much I liked this book. I don’t think I can find words that can sufficiently express how wonderful this book is. The way this book is written you feel as if you are right there with this family. You can’t put it down. You think about it when you aren’t even reading. I will never forget this book and the people in it. Their story will stay with me forever, their struggles and their triumphs. The main theme of this book is love of family and love of country. You feel it in every page of this book. I love how much they love each other and how they would do anything for one another.
As I read this book, I wanted to share it with someone. I really wanted to talk about it. I would strongly recommend this book. I also recommend this book for a book club selection. Anyone who reads this book will get a different perspective on life.
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Don’t miss an opportunity to participate in a Blog Talk Radio chat today with Mary Pat Kelly! You can listen in here. Sign up to call in and ask questions in the chat!
Buy Galway Bay on Amazon or check out the publisher’s website. Thanks to Miriam at Hachette Book Group USA for our copy!
Visit some other tour hosts:
 If Charles Wycombe, the Earl of Billington, doesn’t get married in 15 days, he stands to lose his inheritance to an odious cousin. If Miss Eleanor Lyndon doesn’t marry soon, she will be forced to marry one of many country gentlemen who are either too old, too young, or disgusting, and do extra chores besides when her father marries his horrible fiancee. When Billington falls out of a tree nearly into Ellie’s lap, it leads them to arrange their own marriage in order to avoid their horrible fates.
This little book was an interesting twist on the classic arranged marriage turns to love scenario in that Ellie and Charles choose to arrange their own wedding in order to avoid the less-than-ideal fate that stands before each of them. Of course, there are obstacles along their particular path to true love. One such obstacle really moved me in particular, while another had me irritated because it seemed quite contrived. It wasn’t quite a deus ex machina, but it might as well have been. In the end, though, that hardly mattered. It’s a very sweet story of how two people come to know and fall in love with each other from nothing. Not as funny or touching as the Bridgerton books, but I enjoyed it quite a bit and will probably seek out the first in this duology.
Buy Brighter Than the Sun on Amazon.
 I’m editing an essay that is due in tomorrow! I’ve been trying to visit a few blogs, but have no real time to compose a Sunday Salon post myself. Thank goodness I have lots of reviews on the back burner. Next Sunday I’ll be in the air heading back to the US for a brief holiday, so I’m not sure I’ll be posting then either. So, have a good couple of weeks and I do hope to be back in the Salon soon!
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