Rival to the Queen

Summer book #19: Rival to the Queen by Carolly Erickson

I bought this book because I am fascinated by all things Tudor. Because this was about Elizabeth I, this "rival" could have been anyone: Amy Dudley, Lettice Knollys, Mary Stuart, etc.  This particular book was about Lettice Knollys.

Lettice Knollys was Elizabeth's cousin.  When Elizabeth came to the throne, she wanted all of her "Boleyn relatives" by her side in places of honor.  Lettie was made one of Elizabeth's ladies in waiting. Elizabeth, at least in this book, hated Lettie because Lettie was beautiful where Elizabeth was not.  As the book progresses, we find that Elizabeth hates Lettie even more because Lettie marries Robert Dudley, a great favorite of the queen.

Ms. Erickson takes liberty with history in this book, which is fine by me, to an extent.  For a "great" historian, it seems silly that she changed names and events that are historically noted. One example of this is changing Kat Ashley to Ms. Clinkerte. Another is the event that gets Lettie's son banished from court: historically, it is because he walked into Elizabeth's room while she was in a state of undress. In this book, it was because he acted as though he was going to draw his sword when Elizabeth struck his face. Perhaps it's just me, but I think if an author is going to take liberties to keep the story moving, they shouldn't mess with the actual historic accounts. Mess with the filler instead.

Unlike many other books I have read about Elizabeth I, this was a bit on the boring side. I don't know if this is because I have already read so much about Elizabeth I, or if the subject matter was itself just boring.  This was told from Lettie's side, which was ok. It's safe to say I wouldn't read this one again.

Sisterhood Everlasting

Summer book #18: Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares

I came across this book one day while perusing the aisles at Target.  I didn't buy it that day because I am vehemently opposed to spending $12 for a paperback book.  So, I came home, and bought it off of ebay for a fraction of that.

I have read all of the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants books.  Way back when I used to watch Good Morning America, it was recommended for mothers to read with their daughters. I thought I'd read them to see if the books were something I would share with my daughter when she was old enough. I fell in love with these books.  The bonds that Bee, Tibby, Lena, and Carmen shared were magical, and you knew that they'd always be friends. When Forever in Blue came out, I thought that was the end for these girls. Imagine my surprise to learn that there was another book.

I started this book on Sunday evening, and finished last night.  It started out like all of the other books in the series: catching up on the lives of each of the girls.  It's been ten years in their lives, and although they are still good friends, their lives have taken different directions.  Carmen is an actress in New York, engaged to a man she's not sure she loves. Lena is an art teacher in Rhode Island, but still wonders what would have happened between herself and Kostos. Bee live in California with Eric, the boy she met at soccer camp all those years ago.  She's a wanderer, and has trouble staying in one place. Tibby lives in Australia with Brian.

They've lost touch incrementally over the years, and Tibby tries to bridge that gap.  She sends them each a plane ticket to meet her at Lena's grandparent's house in Santorini, Greece.  Bee, Lena, and Carmen can't hold in their excitement to all be together again, but are quickly sobered when Tibby doesn't come to pick them up.  Why? Because Tibby died, drowned in the waters of the Caldera.  This is a blow to the girls, and they grow further apart.  For months they don't talk to each other.  Things don't feel the same without Tibby. Tibby, however, anticipates this, and gives each of them letters from beyond the grave with instructions.

Will the remaining Septembers follow the directions? What will they learn about themselves? Will they ever be close again? Read and find out.

Despite the fact that I was sad throughout most of this book, I enjoyed it. It ended well, and Brashares left it open to revisit it later, if she so chooses.  Maybe not my favorite summer book, it was one I enjoyed. Not it will find a place on a shelf in my classroom library.

I, Michael Bennett

Summer book #17: I, Michael Bennett by James Patterson

This is from the Michael Bennett series.  Michael Bennett is an NYPD detective with 10 children, a Catholic priest for a grandfather, and a strange relationship with his nanny. Michael is a very likeable character, and I generally enjoy reading the books in this series.

The premise of this book is this: Michael is out to capture Manuel Perrine, a very dangerous drug lord from Mexico. He does so, and one of his friends is killed by one of Perrine's bodyguards.  But jail does not keep Perrine from causing havoc for Michael. Two of his sons are shot, and cops are being taken out at an alarming rate.

My only problem with this book is that Patterson doesn't tie up the loose ends like he usually does.  Looks like I have to wait a year to find out what happens.

Drunken Imagery

Summer book #16: Drinking with Dead Women Writers by Elaine Ambrose and AK Turner

I am not sure what I expected when I saw this on one of the many free Kindle download pages of Facebook.  This book is short. Very short. I read it in under an hour. Basically, the two authors thought it would be a good idea to have drinks with some of the greatest female writers of all time.  As the title suggests, these women authors are all dead, which means that any conversations the authors of the book have are made up. Don't get me wrong, I like the book in theory, if not execution.  I just happen to feel it would be more believable had they sought out authors who were alive, and gone drinking with them. Really this sounded like an excuse for these women to get drunk and let their minds run wild.  I can't imagine someone actually paying to read this, and I am glad I didn't. The dead women writers included in this book are: Margaret Mead, Willa Cather, Jane Austen, Sylvia Plath, Erma Bombeck, the Bronte Sisters, Emily Dickinson, Carson McCullers, Margaret Mitchell, Dorothy Parker, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Flannery O'Connor, Louisa May Alcott, and Ayn Rand.

Witches and vampires in Elizabethan England

Summer book #15: Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

Last week I finished A Discovery of Witches by the same author.  This is the second book in her All Souls trilogy.  Who knows when the last one will be out, but I will be anxiously awaiting it.

This book finds Diana and Matthew in Elizabethan England.  Admittedly, this is one reason why I liked this book better-I am fascinated by Tudor and Elizabethan England.  They are still searching for Ashmole 782.  Additionally, Diana must find a with to help her learn to use her powers.  Diana and Matthew are friends with the likes of Christopher Marlowe (who doesn't like Diana, and is jealous of her relationship with Matthew), Sir Walter Raleigh, Henry Percy, and Mary Sidney.  They also visit Sept Tours, where Diana and Matthew are formally married, and they spend time with Matthew's vampire father, Philippe.  After a brief sojourn in Blackfriars, they are sent on a mission for Elizabeth I, and sent to Prague.  The Emperor, Rudolf, has a thing for Diana, and he tries to win her over to be his mistress with lavish gifts.  It doesn't work.  They flee back to England, meet Diana's father, who is also a timewalker, and Diana learns how to use her powers. 

I know this is a bare bones account of this fantastic novel, but I don't want to ruin your enjoyment. If you are like me, and enjoy vampires and witches, you should run, not walk, out to get these books.

Read in less than 4 hours

Summer book #14: Lifeguard by James Patterson.

Remember the other day when I said there were two James Patterson books I was missing? This is the second one.  As it turns out, I never read this one when it came out in 2005, which is weird since I read Patterson's books almost as soon as they come out.

This, like most Patterson books, was a fast read. I started at a little after 11 pm, and finished at roughly 2:45 am. 

Our main character is a guy named Ned Kelly, just like the outlaw.  He is from Brockton, MA, but is living in Palm Beach, FL.  At the beginning, we find  Ned in a swanky hotel room with a woman he met just two days before.  He goes to meet his friends, who need his help with an art heist.  The girl in the hotel is killed, the art heist goes bad, and Ned's lifelong friends are killed.  Ned, is implicated in it all. While trying to clear his name, Ned meets an FBI agent names Ellie.  She helps him clear his name, and they fall in love.

Read the book.  James Patterson tells the story much better than I do.

Witches and Vampires

Summer book #13: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

I guess it could be said that my interest in witches began with the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz.  For the most part, this included dressing as a witch for Halloween.  When I was a junior in high school, the first bit of literature we had to read for the year was Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible. After that, I was hooked. I read and watched everything I could about witches and witchcraft.  I even went to Salem, MA, to see the place where the witch scare took place.  Needless to say, when the Harry Potter books came out, I was over the moon. While I don't believe witchcraft actually exists, it's the possibility of its existence that holds so much interest for me.

Vampires. We live in a society today where everything is vampire related, thanks to the Twilight saga.  Don't get me wrong, there was a time, not so long ago, that I was a Twi-hard.  I like to think I am way over that.  Additionally, there are better vampire books out there that are worth my time more than Twilight: Anne Rice's vampire novels, and Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books. Even PC and Kristin Cast's House of Night novels surpass Twilight (though they are more witchy than vampire-y, in my opinion).

I had no idea what A Discovery of Witches was going to be about when I bought it; it had witches in the title, and that was enough for me. 

The book is about Diana Bishop, who is descended from Bridgett Bishop, one of the "witches" executed in Salem in 1692.  Diana is a scholar, whose parents were powerful witches, and subsequently killed when she was seven.  Diana has spent her life trying not to use her powers.  One evening while doing reserach in the Bodelian library at Oxford, Diana calls up an enchanted text.  Somehow word gets out that Diana found this book that has been missing since 1859.  Daemons, witches, and vampires begin coming out of the woodwork to get her to find the book again.  One of these vampires is Matthew Clairmont.  Diana is now in danger because of this book, and Matthew protects her.  Matthew and Diana fall in love, which is a huge no-no. They also find out that Diana is possibly the most powerful witch ever, which is also a danger because other witches are trying to harm her to find out her powers.

I won't give away too much, but toward the end, Matthew and Diana decide it is safer for themselves and those around them to travel to a time where Diana can learn from a powerful witch to control her powers. 

There is a sequel that just came out in stores today, so I will be running out to buy it tomorrow.

A Golf Book

Summer Book #12: Miracle on the 17th Green by James Patterson.

A little backstory, if you please.  I began reading James Patterson books in late 1997, after Stoney took me to see Kiss the Girls. I enjoyed the movie, and had no idea that it was a book until I came across it one day at Target.  After that, I was pretty much hooked.  In the past almost fifteen years, I have read every James Patterson book, or so I thought.  Well, close anyway, as I am not at all interested in reading his one nonfiction book, Against Medical Advice. As it turns out, I was wrong.  Last weekend, my husband finally repainted our study. In order for him to do this, I had to take all of my books off of the floating shelves.  When I went to put them up, I sorted my Patterson books.  All of the Alex Cross books together by order of publication, same with the Women's Murder Club series, Michael Bennet series, Private series, and books that don't belong in a series (all the Maximum Ride books, Daniel X books, and Witch and Wizard books will now have a home in my classroom).  As I was putting the non-series books in order of publication, I noticed that there were two James Patterson books I was missing: Miracle on the 17th Green and Lifeguard.

This book is short.  It was all of 149 pages long, and not even a regular sized hardback book.  It didn't take long at all to read.  It is about a man, Travis McKinley, who is unhappy in his life.  He has three kids that he loves, a wife he adores (although they are on course for a divorce), and a job he hates.  When the book opens, it is Christmas day, and Travis goes to play golf.  He has an amazing game, so he continues to play, and loses track of time.  This causes him to miss Christmas dinner, which is not a good thing.  Travis decides he wants to try to make the Senior Pro Team, but has trouble telling his wife.  Then, on the first workday of the new year, Travis is let go from the company he has been working for for 23 years.  Suddenly, he sees that he has the chance to do what he really wants to do with his life.  Over dinner, he tells his family that he is going to try to be a pro golf player. 

When Travis calls home to tell his family that he made the tour, his wife tells him she is going to consult a lawyer about a divorce.  Tons of golf follows.  At the end, Travis is in a major gold tournament at Pebble Beach, and his family is there.  All of the sudden, his wife wants to give their marriage another shot, and the book ends on a happy note.

Not the best Patterson has to offer, though that may be because I don't care much for golf, so it wasn't interesting to me. 

Sequel to a much loved childhood book

Summer book #11: The Best School Year Ever by Barbara Robinson.  I kinda feel like a cheater pants including this book on my summer list because it is so short, and geared toward elementary students.  However, it is summer, it is a book, and I did read it, so it counts.

A little back story...Several years in a row, in elementary school, my teachers read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever to us, and showed us the movie.  I always enjoyed it.  A couple of years ago, I found that neither of my kids had ever heard of the book, much less read it.  I purchased the book, and as soon as it came in the mail, I read it aloud to them.  I enjoyed sharing something from my younger days with them. 

Not long after I read the Christmas book to them, The Best School Year Ever was a selection in a book order form that my daughter brought home from school.  I didn't know that a sequel existed, but I had to have it.  Sometime after the book came in, it went missing.  I found it a couple of weeks ago when cleaning my daughter's room. I read it today.

This book chronicles the antics performed by the Herdman children-the worst kids in town-during a school year.  It starts with the narrator's (Beth's) teacher giving the students an assignment at the beginning of school: they have to find compliments for their classmates.  They have to come up with at least one for everyone in class.  At some point in the year, each student draws the name of another student, and has to come up with several compliments for that student.  Beth draws Imogene Herdman.  Again, she is a juvenile delinquent, and Beth finds it difficult to come up with nice things to say about Imogene.  Beth uses the antics chronicled in the book to come up with her compliments.  Her compliments make Imogene feel good.

Not as good as the Christmas book, but this was a cute, lighthearted read.  If I taught elementary school, this would be one I read to my class.

A Pemberly Medley

Summer book #10: A Pemberly Medley: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Abigail Reynolds.  Another Pride and Prejudice related freebie on my kindle.  I started this after downloading it last week because Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite books, and I read nearly everything I come across related to it.  I was excited about this one as I thought it was going to be stories told from the inhabitants of Pemberly after Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy married.  I was wrong.  Only one story actually took place at Pemberly, so in my view, the book was misnamed.

When I read the first short story, I was a bit miffed because the author took liberties with the timeline and situations that occurred in Jane Austen's masterpiece.  I kept thinking "How dare she mess with this book?" As I continued to read, I realized that was exactly the point: to tell parts of Pride and Prejudice in different ways.  Once I made my peace with that, it was ok, for the most part. 

You have to keep in mind that I hold Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy in an exalted status in my mind.  I mention that only because it is sometimes hard for me to read things that are out of character for them based on Ms. Austen's work.  Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth's relationship was conducted with the utmost propriety.  In this work, however, Mr. Darcy is undecorous in his behavior, always trying to find ways to act inappropriately with Elizabeth. Elizabeth, on the other hand, is often painted as a wanton, slutty figure.  I'm not saying that their behavior is outside the realm of possibility, but I never picture them that way.  I would venture that not many people do, based solely upon the numerous retellings and sequels that I have read based on this book the past few years.

If I were to rate this book on a scale from one to ten, I'd give it a five. Not the best read, but not terrible either. I applaud the author for asking herself the question "What if it had been this way?" and taking the time to write what she thought the answer to that question would be.

I have been inspired by all of these Jane Austen and Austen wannabe books to aquire for myself a portable writing desk similar to those used by Austen's heroines.  I have my eye on one on ebay, and I'll post how that goes.