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 Venice in the early fifteenth century is a nest of scandal. The titular Duke does not actually rule; instead, his mother, the Duchess Alexa, rules for him with her brother-in-law, the much-despised Alonzo. They’ve conspired to wed their niece, Giulietta, to the King of Cyprus, conveniently ignoring the fact that she’s not interested. Meanwhile, Tycho, a pale man who can’t stand the sun and has supernatural strength, awakens in the hold of a ship, bound with silver chains. When he is released, he runs into the head of the Assassini, an association of assassins. Their numbers have decreased drastically and said leader is aging. He immediately conscripts Tycho into training, not caring what his reasons for avoiding the sun are, merely doing his best to protect Venice in this troubled time.
Despite the appealing nature of this book – full of politics, darkness, and supernatural beings – I had a difficult time getting into it. It’s received positive reviews across the internet, so apparently I am an anomaly, but I found the book too dark, and much too sexual and bloody for my personal liking. This probably fits with the nature of it, but is difficult to take and often felt like an unnecessary add-on. Moreover, the book’s plot moves very quickly. Usually, with a book like this, it’s fine to be tossed right in the mix of things, and get a grip as you move on and finally figure out who people are and what’s going on. The problem with this one was that I never really felt I had a handle on what was happening.
What I did like was the atmosphere in general and the setting. Historical Venice with magic – I could hardly ask for more. Grimwood sets the scene very well and is a master at descriptive language. The magical aspects seem to sit perfectly within the historical context, so this part of the book at least was easy to sink into. The battle scenes were also well done, and were among the few times I actually felt compelled to continue reading.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get on with the characters either. The plot moves so quickly that we flit between a variety of them, never really caring about any of them. Worse, by the end quite a few of them are dead – but because I was never attached to any of them, this produced none of the emotional impact that it should have done. The book left me with the feel that I should have enjoyed it more, given its positive points and its very appealing plotline. For others who are in the mood for a speedy political read in a fantastic setting, I suspect The Fallen Blade would suit better.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free for review from Netgalley.
 The Lady Most Likely…, Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, and Connie Brockway
While masquerading as a full novel, this is really three novellas combined into one house party. Happily married Carolyn throws a house party for her brother, Hugh, a duke, to find his bride, but many other couples find themselves thrown together as well. It was cute and sweet, as I’d come to expect, but nothing particularly special despite having two of my favorite romance authors (Julia Quinn and Eloisa James) writing for it. Great for an afternoon’s diversion, but probably only if you can get it out of the library.
 Tempt Me at Twilight, Lisa Kleypas
Harry Rutledge is a real romance novel hero; a rugged man who could easily be cast as a villain, but who really has a heart of gold. He’s been treated so badly throughout his life that he believes he’s lost the ability to love. Poppy Hathaway is just the girl to set him straight, from the minute she chases her sister Beatrix’s ferret into his office and has no idea who he is. Poppy has her heart set on Michael Bayning, but Harry is determined to win her for himself.
In part, I liked this book, and in part, I didn’t. Harry is too ruthless of a man for me, plus he’s quite a stereotype. He goes out of his way to ‘win’ Poppy without any consideration for her feelings. This made the beginning of the book very difficult to appreciate. (It didn’t help that I was on a plane and not particularly well!) When I picked the book up again later, though, things started to fall into place, especially when Harry realized he did care what Poppy felt about him. Of course, the novel proceeds to go the route of little-abandoned-boy-becomes-man-who-cannot-love-but-can-be-redeemed. At least it was done well, and when I finished I eagerly went on to the next in the series, which follows right below this one.
 Married by Morning, Lisa Kleypas
Leo Hathaway has seemingly recovered – as much as possible anyway – from the death of his fiancee several years ago. He’s cut a rakish path through society since then, more or less aimlessly and full of humor, with few people getting under his skin. The exception is his sisters’ governess, Miss Catherine Marks, with whom he shares a mutual hatred. They regularly mock one another but can’t seem to stay away, and naturally that sexual tension explodes. But Catherine has a few skeletons in her closet and Leo must relinquish his devil-may-care armor before they can truly fall in love.
Like most other people who have read and enjoyed this series, I have been waiting for Leo’s story since book 1. He’s the tortured soul that we all managed to fall in love with even when he was making life difficult for Amelia – who can’t adore a man who is so devastated over the loss of his fiancee? I think we all just wanted Leo to be happy. When Catherine Marks appeared, it was obvious that she was the one (as I’m sure Kleypas planned it!) This tied nicely into the last book and made them perfect follow-ups to one another. I felt this was stronger all around – stronger romance, better plot (though still a romance novel one), and sparkling interactions between all of the characters. For a book I’ve anticipated for a couple of years, Married by Morning didn’t let me down, and that was a nice feeling.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased all of these books.
 In all honesty, I meant to write this post yesterday for #savelibraries day. Unfortunately, time got away from me, but I thought it was still important to write about how things are in this country, and why libraries are regarded as something that can easily be forgotten (in my opinion). I’ve written similar opinions on others’ blogs, but I thought it was time to finally put them on my own.
Libraries in the UK are being closed down now, part of many, many governmental ‘budget cuts’ that, to me, seem mostly designed to make life harder for poor people and easier for rich people. It’s the way it goes. But, as a reasonably well-off person these days, libraries are my main concern. Because I can afford to buy books, but I know others can’t. I know my parents couldn’t satisfy my insatiable need to read with buying (at least part of why I’ve read some of my childhood books 10+ times) and I’m pretty sure that today’s parents will struggle just as much. Literacy should be encouraged; as we watch our countries slide down in intelligence, as even schools start to go downhill, it seems basic literacy should be encouraged more than anything. I proofread others’ writing; I know just how bad at least some schools here are at teaching students how to write. I’m convinced that reading voraciously helps immensely with not only writing but a vast amount of skills that are simply necessary for modern day life.
So why are libraries failing and being cut as unnecessary? I have a few reasons to postulate:
1. Kids don’t read. Some do, yes, but their parents don’t read. Reading in our modern day lives has become a chore. The people I know in real life who do read don’t use the library. At all. But kids need guidance to learn what they like to read. While teachers should take this on, I firmly believe librarians can also play a huge part in this. My library here has programmes for kids to do just this. Without them, their resources are more limited. I see no programmes planned to replace those of closed libraries.
2. Libraries can actually cost money for borrowers. In my old library system, it cost 50p to reserve a new book. Everyone who paid their 50p could read the book before the rest of us. It also cost 50p or more to reserve a book in a different library in the system, and more than that to borrow a CD or DVD. I understand that they’re just trying to raise money, but surely charging for a borrowed book is not the way to encourage this. Especially with point number 3.
3. Charity shops are everywhere. And while their mission is to do good for various suffering people and animals across the country, it certainly doesn’t help libraries (or bookstores) that they sell books for 50p or £1. Some charity shops dare to charge £2.50-£4, but these are less popular than the former. If you can buy a book for the same amount of money it costs you to borrow it for 3 weeks, why bother with borrowing? Why risk it being overdue? If you buy it in a charity shop, you own it, and you can pat yourself on the back for donating money to good causes. I know I’ve done it, because it is a good thing, but it doesn’t help my main concern here.
4. Books in the UK are pretty cheap in general. Most paperbacks I buy new online are £5 or less, with free shipping. I buy the occasional hardcover for around £10. If I had a bricks-and-mortar shop to support locally, they’d still only cost about £8. I can go to Tesco, my local supermarket, right now and get two books for that price. It’s not the same difference in the US, where most paperbacks are now trade paperbacks and cost $10-15. That’s a bigger savings than £5. I can afford to buy more books new, so I do. I still use the library, but I buy the books they don’t have, since there is no request system in place for the purchase of new books.
There is simply less surface cause for British people to need the library – not if they don’t read particularly often – because books aren’t that expensive and quite often library charges cancel out the benefits of borrowing a book for nothing. But that doesn’t mean libraries should be closed. They’re essential to communities, offering services for both children and adults that won’t be replaced. I was thrilled to see a library in Doncaster featured on the BBC yesterday due to all the people that were protesting by checking out books. But it’s important to remember not to support your library on just one day. Support them regularly, and we can teach the government that they are something we genuinely need, that can’t just be ‘cut’.
ETA: Nymeth wrote an incredible post elaborating in much clearer detail on why libraries are important.
 Space travel is something that has fascinated people the world over, even before it was an actual scientific possibility. Now that it is, and has been, Mary Roach takes her approach into the funny, hidden side of traveling to the moon and the impending tests for a trip to Mars. She doesn’t skimp on the details, from astronauts’ diapers to disgusting dried meals to whether or not any astronauts have joined the “three dolphin club”, the equivalent to the “mile high club” for airplanes. At the same time, she acknowledges both the wonder and the terror of space flight and delves deep into the history of the men, women, and animals who have dared to go where no others had gone before.
I’ve previously read one book by Mary Roach, Bonk, but I knew immediately upon reading it that I wanted to read more by her. Packing for Mars just seemed like an excellent choice; highly rated by many people I know and covering fascinating subject matter, I couldn’t resist. It’s science in a way anyone can consume it, even people who normally dislike science like me, mixed in with a healthy dose of humor and those anecdotes which other authors probably wouldn’t share, let alone investigate. Things like a freezer full of astronaut poos and the earlier-mentioned “three dolphin club” – I certainly didn’t expect to find those in this book, but I probably should have. There is plenty of history here as well as current experiments going on for future missions.
I also really appreciated the fact that Roach doesn’t limit herself to American astronauts. She also heads to Russia, and though fewer of her stories are about the cosmonauts, she certainly includes the country’s important role in space exploration and travel. Laika, the first dog in space, and her two followers who actually managed to survive the trip are mentioned right along with the monkeys that Americans used for their tests. I’ve spent a fair amount of time studying the Russian efforts into space, so I was happy to see a representation of both countries.
For me, this book was the perfect mix of facts and humor. I never felt bogged down by facts because the rest of the book was just so funny and informative. It’s great to learn and be entertained at the same time, and this is just what Roach delivers – providing a hilarious entry into the history and current situation of space travel. She doesn’t shy away from the dangers or the messy parts, and she experiences everything she can herself, from parabolic flights to going in a space travel toilet. Highly recommended.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 Octavia Frost, a fairly ordinary novelist, has just written her most depressing book to date. Her new book, though, The Nobodies Album, is something completely different – she is rewriting the endings to all of her previous books. It’s perfectly apt for this time in her life, as she wishes many parts of her life could have turned out differently. She can’t begin restitution, however, until she hears shocking news: her rock star son Milo, from whom she has been estranged for years, has been accused of murdering his girlfriend. Octavia immediately flies to his home in California, not knowing what to expect, but ready for a change in her life and to support her son in the most difficult time of his. Interspersed with her story are the endings of all the books she’s written, along with their new chapters, shedding ever-increasing light on the changing state of Octavia’s emotions and outlook on life.
Despite the fact that it’s billed as a literary mystery, I found The Nobodies Album surprisingly satisfying. It’s true that the mystery wasn’t particularly mysterious; there is really only one person who has any motive for murdering Milo’s girlfriend Bettina, so even I, notoriously slow when it comes to solving these things, figured it out before the characters did. But I quite enjoyed the story along the way. Many of the other story elements aren’t revealed until further into the book, so it takes a while to truly understand how they have all gotten to this point. Seeing things from Octavia’s point of view, as an older woman who has made mistakes, tied in with the obvious change of attitude she’s had displayed through the old book endings spread throughout the story, made for a very emotive and moving read.
Though beautifully written, Octavia’s voice is slightly cold to start. I would encourage you to set that aside until the story gets more involved. She has reasons for acting the way that she does, and those reasons lead to the reveal of some fascinating, complex relationships – exactly what I look for in a book like this. The story takes a close look in particular at the relationships between mothers and their children; how even doing the best you can sometimes isn’t quite enough, especially not in the formative years. It’s true that Octavia and Milo have some terrible circumstances to deal with, but she realizes that their personalities – which are very similar – will clash while their lives are still normal. She isn’t the kind of parent Milo needs, but she’s the parent he has left, which leads to problems in their relationship that eventually result in their initial estrangement.
The Nobodies Album is a thoughtful and at times suspenseful literary mystery. Highly recommended to those who enjoy well-written characters and don’t mind the occasional break for another thread of the story.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free for review from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
The first month of 2011 is already past us – it’s certainly hard for me to believe! Wasn’t it just Christmas?? We only just took our tree down and I have to say, without holiday cheeriness it’s difficult to take the cold winter. I’m already set for spring yet have months to go.
My reading this month has been pretty good! I read 20 books in the month of January. I had a week off to visit my parents, plus a couple of days at the New Year, so I managed to fit in plenty of reading time. I hope I’ve set a good course for the year ahead. This year I’ve decided to simplify my wrap-ups by splitting books into just fiction and non-fiction. I’m aiming for a more even balance anyway, and classifying gets more difficult by the day!
Fiction
- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
- Looking for Alaska, John Green
- Last Sacrifice, Richelle Mead
- A Reliable Wife, Robert Goolrick
- The Raising, Laura Kasischke
- Something Missing, Matthew Dicks
- The Lady Most Likely, Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, and Connie Brockway
- The Queen of Last Hopes, Susan Higginbotham
- Fall for Anything, Courtney Summers
- You Know When the Men are Gone, Siobhan Fallon
- The Oracle of Stamboul, Michael David Lukas
- The Nobodies Album, Carolyn Parkhurst
- Tempt Me at Twilight, Lisa Kleypas
- Married by Morning, Lisa Kleypas
- The Fallen Blade, Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Non-fiction
I can’t choose a favorite this month – I read too many fantastic books! I wholeheartedly recommend Packing for Mars, The Heroine’s Bookshelf, Notes from a Small Island, American Rose, Looking for Alaska, The Raising, Fall for Anything, and You Know When the Men are Gone.
How was your reading month?
I am an Amazon Associate. Some of these books were sent to me for review.
 In Lena’s world, love is a disease. Called “deliria amor nervosa”, the disease has a myriad of symptoms and is generally blamed for all the world’s ills. Things are better since a cure was found, or so they say. Lena believes them wholeheartedly and can’t wait for her procedure, scheduled to happen for everyone on their eighteenth birthday. With just months to go, Lena prepares meticulously for her interview and is diligent about staying away from boys, preferring the company of her best friend. But when she and Hana sneak past a fence, she meets a boy, Alex, and though he has the mark of the cured, Lena’s worldview begins to shift in drastic ways.
What a dystopia this was. Can you imagine a world without love? I never could before and I’m not sure I’d like to again – Lena’s world is cold and forbidding. I liked the approach of this story – it reminded me of Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, in that Lena just can’t wait to be like everyone else. Her mother, stricken by love, killed herself when Lena was a girl, and ever since she’s been marked with the same brush of tragedy and illness. Being cured is her only way to escape, and she never considers her mother’s last words until she meets Alex and starts to feel what love actually is.
The world itself was interesting and, I thought, fairly well fleshed out for the first volume of a trilogy. Part of me was wondering about the logistics of it all – how many cities are out there like Lena’s? Why did they still allow people to get married if they might fall in love with their spouse? But I set those concerns aside, thinking that they might be answered in the next book, and instead kept reading because I was totally captivated by the story.
I was completely swept away by Delirium. It’s almost difficult to relate to Lena at first because she is so determined to be ordinary. As she slowly breaks the mold and dares to be extraordinary, she becomes much more interesting and I found myself racing through the rest of the story to see what happens to her and Alex. Because of course they are destined to fall in love, and it’s such a wonderful and sweet romance. I could believe in them and I was crossing my fingers for them throughout the story. It really was beautiful. And the ending was something I saw coming – I am not sure now how I’m going to wait until the next volume of the trilogy is released!
In the meantime, I’ve already purchased Before I Fall and can guarantee I’ll be reading that as soon as it arrives on my doorstep. I highly recommend Delirium to anyone looking for a good, compelling YA dystopia with a passionate love story at the core.
For those of us in the UK, Delirium will be published in just a couple of days. In the meantime, here are the publisher’s website and Amazon links!
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free for review from Netgalley.
 In times of stress, there’s almost nothing better than rereading a cozy favorite book and shutting out the world. And who better to remind us of how to be the heroines of our own lives than the heroines of our favorite books? From Jane Eyre, my own personal favorite, to The Color Purple, Blakemore takes a closer look at our favorite female characters, the books they star in, and the authors who wrote them. She not only isolates a few of the greatest traits of these heroines, but explains how we can take them away and use them in our own lives.
The Heroine’s Bookshelf was everywhere in the book blogosphere last month and with all the praise it garnered, I couldn’t resist getting a copy for myself. So when it popped up on Amazon Vine, I eagerly requested it, just knowing I’d love a book about so many of my favorite female characters. It’s difficult for a book to live up to those high expectations, but this one managed just that. It’s a delightful, heartening little read, that reminds us we’re not alone and certainly made me want to go right back to these literary favorites. Perfectly written for a time when many women’s lives are getting more difficult, when the pennies have to stretch that much further, this is a book that has a place on every woman’s bookshelf.
What I really loved most about this book was that Blakemore didn’t stop at the actual heroines in the novels. No, those are the women we’re all familiar with, that we have already come to love and store within ourselves. She also talks about the fabulous female authors who created these literary heroines and their own foibles. She speculates on their motivations for creating the strong girls who still manage to inspire us today and adds them into the mix of real life – because much as we’d like it, our lives aren’t fiction with a neat conclusion. Our lives are messy, and so were these authors’, but they stood above that and created literature that transcends. Maybe our acts of heroism aren’t writing, but that doesn’t mean they can’t inspire us.
Split into sections for the trait each character epitomizes, Blakemore takes us on a literary journey of sorts, through one heroine’s capacity to love, to another’s classification of magic, to a third’s unrelenting faith. Even without having read all the books (I have never read The Color Purple or Colette’s Claudine works), I still felt I gained from those sections. As an added bonus, I’d now love to read them, and plan to do so in the very near future. The entire book felt like it was written just for me – and it reminded me of how fortunate I am to love reading and to find inspiration in it on a regular basis.
If you are a woman and love to read – if you spent much of your childhood lost in a book like me – The Heroine’s Bookshelf is simply a must read. I’m thrilled to have it on my shelf.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free for review from Amazon Vine.
As a child and teenager, I reread books all the time. For a few years, I didn’t own a book I hadn’t read twice, as I quite speedily read and reread any new books my parents bought me. Books are, obviously, easier to come by these days. I actually have unread books left from every single month of last year, which demonstrates how drastic the problem is, and I don’t really anticipate receiving fewer books at this point. But I still want to reread books I haven’t read in years. So, I have three big rereads I’ve decided to publicly commit myself to this year.
1. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I read this first in high school and Ihave always wanted to read it again. I’m reading along with Nicole and Jen on What’s Old is New for the year, and so far have been doing really well. Reading each section only takes about half an hour, and while I know this means I’ll be reading this book for a very long time, that may be the only way I finish it again. Saying that, I’m enjoying it so far and found it difficult to step away after finishing the last section, so clearly my choice to reread this was a good one.
 2. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery – and the rest of the series. When I realized I could have all of these on my Kindle, I knew it was high time to reread these childhood favorites. I have never read all of them before, and some of the later ones I only read once, so I’m really looking forward to rediscovering them again. Anne of Green Gables has always been one of my favorite books. I’m planning on reading one book out of the series each month starting in February.
 3. The Wheel of Time. This is my biggest challenge for the year. This series was my very first foray into epic fantasy way back when. While it had its ups and downs, I have been waiting for it to be finished since I was in high school. Not as long as some people who started reading when the first book is published, but quite a while to wait for a series to end. Now, the last book, A Memory of Light, is the only one left to be published, but that leaves me with no less than 13 doorstopper volumes to read before publication date – the last three of which are completely new to me. I want to be ready to read 14 on that pub date, which is currently projected to be March 2012, leaving me with about enough time if I read one book per month, starting in February. This should also means I can remember what happened, because I’ll be reminding myself each and every month. (WoT fans will realize that I’m skipping the prequel book, but I actually remember that one fairly well since I accidentally read it twice and last, so I chose to leave that one out.)
Those are my rereading plans for the year. If they succeed, I have quite a few other series I’ll tackle in 2012, but I’ll go with these in the meantime.
Do you have any books you’re planning on rereading in 2011?
 On the eve of moving his family from England to his native US, Bill Bryson decides to take one last trip around the country he’s lived in for nearly two decades. He journeys from the south of England up to John O’Groat’s in Scotland, exploring a myriad of historic and modern cities and landmarks along the way. He does so entirely on public transport, making an effort to disprove the complaints of Brits everywhere when they protest their trains and buses – which, to an American who has to drive just to get to a bus stop, are pretty exciting – and makes quite a few observations on British character along the way.
I’ve been enjoying Bryson’s memoirs for a few months now, but I think this one has been my favorite. It’s pretty easy to see why; like Bryson, I am also an American living in England. While I can laugh at the many absurdities of English people, as Bryson does, it’s pretty clear that both of us just absolutely love the country. Criticisms abound, but they are the criticisms you make of someone you love dearly – you can see faults, but that doesn’t diminish how you feel overall.
What’s really funny about this book is how accurate it is. The part about multi-storey car parks made me laugh so hard I actually cried (which amused my British husband to no end as well), because it was just so true. They do, in fact, always smell of urine in the stairwells, no matter how nice the place you’re visiting is. So many of his observations – even years on, when British Rail no longer exists – are still completely accurate. British people will unfailingly line up in neat queues without being told where to go. They do apologize to you before they complain about something that’s completely within their rights to have. They have a complete disregard for historic buildings because they have so many of them, something which has only lately begun to change. It’s all very true, in case you wonder as you read this.
Because you should read it if you are an Anglophile, and especially if you’re an American. There is much to love about the British isles and Bryson is far from immune to their charms, at least those of England, Scotland, and Wales. In addition to exploring the England of today, he looks back at older Englands, visiting towns affected by mining, commercialism, and even Milton Keynes, which was constructed after the world wars. One of the most moving passages in the book was his trip to one northern town, where the miners formed an art society. The art produced by these men wasn’t the best, but it was remarkably good and showed more the fact that they wanted to transcend life in the mine, even if it absorbed every minute of their scant leisure time. Even sadder was the fact that the club closed; not only did the mine close but modern life and the television set began to appeal more than spending time with a paintbrush and easel.
Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island is a love letter to England; it’s a careful look at what makes the people distinctive, the sense of history pervasive, and a hilarious take on modern life. If you’re an Anglophile like me, I can’t recommend this book highly enough.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
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