Don’t forget, today is the LAST DAY to enter my giveaway for a copy of Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette’s Daughter
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Nari at The Novel World is hosting a giveaway for The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd here. It only takes a comment to enter! Lisa at Minds Alive on the Shelves is giving away a signed copy of Immortals: The Crossing by Joy Nash here. Jenn at Jenn’s Bookshelf has a copy of Confessions of a Contractor by Richard Murphy up for grabs here.
Contrasted with Marie-Therese’s story, there are short snippets about another woman, “The Dark Countess”, whose story has convinced many that she was the real Marie-Therese. There was another girl very similar in appearance to Marie-Therese, but who died at a much younger age, so the identity of this woman has never been discovered. This story was relevant, but I was glad that it only had a small place in the book, as I thought the real Marie-Therese deserved her own story. This book is horrifying to read at times, particularly when the royal family is imprisoned and treated disgracefully. As a historian, Nagel can tease out all the details and we can learn how unjust their treatment was. The entire family lived less extravagantly than their forebears and essentially fell prey to the ambition of their cousin, who made the most of a bad situation. The royal family remained loyal to France despite their despicable treatment as prisoners. Nagel’s writing is always fluid and easy to read. At times, I did get bogged down in the vast number of people that I was supposed to be remembering, especially regarding the Dark Countess. I think that if I knew a bit more about post-Revolution France, or even if I spoke French, I would have had an easier time of it. Regardless, I enjoyed this a lot and I felt I learned a great deal about one of those parts of history that isn’t normally focused on. Marie-Therese was an interesting person who led a fascinating life, even in its extremely unhappy parts. As the only royal to survive, she had a great legacy on her shoulders and she bore it well. I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in history. Buy this book on Amazon. Thanks to Marcia at The Printed Page for generously sending this book to me! *** Or, would you like to win a copy? I have an ARC of this book that I will be happy to give away to one winner. The rules are easy:
Good luck!
I haven’t entered all of these giveaways, obviously, just wanted to round up the ones I’ve seen lately. 1. The Fashionista Piranha is giving away a selection of Neil Gaiman prizes here: – an ARC copy of Gaiman’s newest book, The Graveyard Book, due to be released September 30th, 2008. 2. Bookish Ruth has two giveaways going right now. The first is for a copy of Kaimira: The Sky Village here, and the second is for The Gargoyle here. I just read The Gargoyle and loved it, so if free books isn’t enough of a motivation, that should be! 3. The Kool-Aid Mom is giving away a copy of Miska: An Adoption Tale here, an adorable children’s book about adopting a little boy from Russia. She also has an interview with the author over there. 4. The Tome Traveller is giving away a copy of Stealing Athena here. 5. Kathleen at Kathleen’s Book Reviews is giving away a copy of The Questory of Root Karbunkulus by Kamilla Reid here. 6. The Novel World is giving away a copy of Immortal by Traci Slatton here. And her name is Shana, from Literarily! Congratulations on winning a copy of The Streets of Babylon by Carina Burman! My method: I asked my mom to choose a number between 1 and 18, my number of entries (including blog posts as well as comments). She hadn’t seen the spreadsheet, so no chance of bias. Check back soon for another contest … =) There are only two and a half hours left until my giveaway for a free copy of Carina Burman’s The Streets of Babylon ends! Enter here with a comment – you could still win!  “Originally I was a bit intimidated by Meghan’s blog – the name at least, I was envisioning exclusively medieval-period book reviews, or at least medieval period historical fiction reviews. However, I have grown to love her style and the books she chooses. It always makes me happy to see a post from her in my google reader.” Thank you so much, Jen! And the giveaway – The Literate Housewife is holding a contest to herald the new opening of her online book club. You can enter here for a chance to win her first selection, Immortal by Traci Slatton. I’m excited to read this and to participate in her book club, whether I win or not!
I found this book highly amusing, which I’m not sure I’m supposed to feel in a mystery. I’m not sure – mysteries aren’t my genre, although historical fiction is. It wasn’t harrowing at all, probably thanks to Euthanasia’s infectious way of shrugging off the worst of things until going off into the thick of them. She does her share of spying and dressing up as a man to get into the seedy London underworld in an attempt to put the pieces together and find her missing friend. There are a lot of pieces, as numerous crimes are going on at the same time! In addition, the London underworld is depicted in some detail, which is definitely something that I enjoyed, and it’s easy to see why its denizens would shrug off the appearance of a woman dressed as a man. Sometimes the wording in this novel is a bit awkward, but I think that’s due to the translation. The characters are all viewed through Euthanasia’s sometimes rose-colored glasses, particularly her favorite, Professor Devindra (who has a very long last name that I keep thinking is that of one of my professors). I think what this mystery best succeeds at is making a character out of Euthanasia. It’s entirely her tale, and she may not be entirely realistic, but she’s great company. As a minor note, I also love the way the chapter headings start with “In which”. It just helps to give the whole book a quirky feel. I do have some reservations with the book – the plot is all over the place and hard to keep track of and like I mentioned before, no one ever seems to be in danger, although they’re all supposed to be. There’s very little suspense. I would probably still recommend this book, though, just because it’s a good time and pure escapism. Euthanasia is a great character and the plot is there, if a bit scattered. All in all, an entertaining read. Buy this book on Amazon. *** And this leads me to the fun part (for you all) – the giveaway! I’m giving away a free paperback copy of this book. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. If you blog about my contest, I’ll give you another entry. The contest will be open until midnight Eastern Time, July 31st. This book is small, so I’m willing to ship international. Good luck! Marie at The Boston Bibliophile is giving away an ARC copy of the Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry here! You have until July 29th to enter. This book looks amazing! Melanie at Love to Read is giving away an ARC copy of Tarnished Beauty by Cecilia Samartin. Lisa at Books on the Brain is giving away a copy of Queen of the Road by Doreen Orion. Click here for instructions on how to enter! Finally, Yoyogod is giving away a copy of Farwood: Waterkeep by J. Scott Savage here – just blog about it and link to enter! |
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Marie-Therese was only a child when her parents, King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France, were beheaded during the French Revolution. After a childhood of privilege, she faced great deprivation as a teenager and endured constant struggle through the rest of her life, yet somehow managed to remain dedicated to France and her people. Marie-Therese was an inspirational woman and Susan Nagel has done well on writing her first biography. I have always wondered exactly what happened to Marie Antoinette’s children. So often, history focuses on her and her husband, ignoring that one of the children survived and went on to live a mostly healthy life.
Euthanasia Bondeson is a Swedish author enticed to visit England by the spectacle known as the 1851 Great Exhibition, at least until her companion, Agnes, goes missing. Euthanasia is by no means a detective, but she teams up with inspector Owain Evans to find her friend before it’s too late.
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