The War I Finally Won

The War I Finally Wonby Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, 385 pages

As the frightening impact of World War II creeps closer and closer to her door, eleven-year-old Ada learns to manage life on the home front. This is an amazing work of historical fiction about England in World War II.  This is a sequel, although the books could be read as stand alone stories and I think I liked this one better than the first.  This story has as much action as the first and really hits all of the emotion that anyone could possibly want in a story.  I would highly recommend it to kids who like historical fiction.

Katherine Of Aragon The True Queen

Katherine Of Aragon The True Queen by Alison Weir, 602 pages

“A princess of Spain, Catalina is only sixteen years old when she sets foot on the shores of England. The youngest daughter of the powerful monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, Catalina is a coveted prize for a royal marriage--and Arthur, Prince of Wales, and heir to the English throne, has won her hand. But tragedy strikes and Catalina, now Princess Katherine, is betrothed to the future Henry VIII. She must wait for his coming-of-age, an ordeal that tests her resolve, casts doubt on her trusted confidantes, and turns her into a virtual prisoner. Katherine's patience is rewarded when she becomes Queen of England. The affection between Katherine and Henry is genuine, but forces beyond her control threaten to rend her marriage, and indeed the nation, apart. Henry has fallen under the spell of Katherine's maid of honor, Anne Boleyn. Now Katherine must be prepared to fight, to the end if God wills it, for her faith, her legitimacy, and her heart.” I like Weir’s writing, both in fiction and nonfiction.  This is an excellent story about Katherine.  People who like historical fiction, especially about the Tudor era, will want to read this.

A Plague Of Bogles

A Plague Of Bogles by Catherine Jinks, 330 pages

“Jem Barbary becomes a bogler's apprentice in 1870's London and gets the fright of his life in a city where science clashes with superstition and monsters lurk in every alley.” This book combines two of my favorite genres: fantasy and historical.  It also has a touch or horror about it.  Kids who like the combination will definitely want to read this series.

Manners & Mutiny

Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger, 326 pages

“If one must flirt...flirt with danger.  Lessons in the art of espionage aboard Mademoiselle Geraldine's floating dirigible have become tedious without Sophronia's sweet sootie Soap nearby. She would much rather be using her skills to thwart the dastardly Picklemen, yet her concerns about their wicked intentions are ignored, and now she's not sure whom to trust. What does the brusque werewolf dewan know? On whose side is the ever-stylish vampire Lord Akeldama? Only one thing is certain: a large-scale plot is under way, and when it comes to fruition, Sophronia must be ready to save her friends, her school, and all of London from disaster--in decidedly dramatic fashion, of course. What will become of our proper young heroine when she puts her years of training to the test? Find out in this highly anticipated and thrilling conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Finishing School series!” I love this entire series and anyone who likes adventure stories, especially steampunk needs to read it.  This was a very satisfying conclusion to the series, although I’m sorry to see it end.  However, Carriger is good at ending a series before it gets tiresome, so she’s probably right to stop where she did.

Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession

Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession by Alison Weir, 541 pages

“In this second novel of Alison Weir's epic Six Tudor Queens series, the acclaimed author and historian weaves exciting new research into the story of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's most infamous wife, a woman ahead of her time whose very life--and death--forever changed a nation.  Born into a noble English family, Anne is barely a teenager when she is sent from her family's Hever Castle to serve at the royal court of the Netherlands. This strategic move on the part of her opportunistic father also becomes a chance for the girl to grow and discover herself. There, and later in France, Anne thrives, preferring to absorb the works of progressive writers rather than participate in courtly flirtations. She also begins to understand the inequalities and indignities suffered by her gender. Anne isn't completely inured to the longings of the heart, but her powerful family has ambitious plans for her future that override any wishes of her own. When the King of England himself, Henry VIII, asks Anne to be his mistress, she spurns his advances--reminding him that he is a married man who has already conducted an affair with her sister, Mary. Anne's rejection only intensifies Henry's pursuit, but in the absence of a male heir--and given an aging Queen Katherine--the opportunity to elevate and protect the Boleyn family, and to exact vengeance on her envious detractors, is too tempting for Anne to resist, even as it proves to be her undoing. While history tells of how Anne Boleyn died, this compelling new novel reveals how fully she lived.” I’ve always loved both fiction and nonfiction about this time period in history.  Weir is a fantastic writer and researches her books thoroughly, such that even her fiction is historically as accurate as possible.  This is a great choice for people who like historical fiction, especially about the Tudor era.

Life After Life

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson    560 pages

Kate Atkinson’s novel is tricky. In this novel, with death not an ending but a beginning, it’s hard to know what is reality. The story opens in November 1930. The main protagonist, Ursula, kills Adolph Hitler for an unknown reason. Then the novel reverts to a cold, snowy, January night in 1910. Sylvie Todd is giving birth; the doctor does not arrive before the baby makes its appearance. However, the baby girl dies, strangled by the umbilical cord. In the next chapter, taking place on the same night and almost under the same circumstances, the results are very different. The doctor is able to make it through the snow and the baby, named Ursula, does not die.

Reincarnations, like Ursula’s birth, that are the crux of Atkinson’s novel and these types of episodes appear over and over although not in a linear structure. The novel moves over the course of the early 20^th century. Most of the story takes places between 1910 and 1947, with one chapter stretching to 1967.

At times the plot was difficult to understand. Just about the time I got into a linear stretch, the time moved again. I felt as if I was reading basically a linear plot that continually moved forward, yet had room for the “what if’s?” of  life.

There was one chapter where Ursula is best friends with Eva Braun, is married and has a child. That seemed to come from nowhere and was, for me, quite confusing.

By the time I was turned the last page, I had gotten to know these characters very, very well, perhaps more so than if Life After Life was a traditional love. It was starting to get a little old about two-thirds through the 560 pages, which I why I’m giving Life After Life 4 out of 5 stars. However, I do think this is a book that can be read over and over and over. As a person moves through his or her life, like Ursula, a new reading, I think, will create even newer worlds.

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson   480 Pages

Erik Larson’s latest book provides me with my second reason why she has no desire to ever, ever take a cruise. The first was all the books I’ve read on the Titanic.

Like Larson, I knew a bit about the sinking the luxury liner Lusitania, but after reading his book, I realize that my knowledge was skimpy at best, embarrassingly wrong at worse. I had always thought that the sinking of the Lusitania and other ships carrying American citizens is what propelled the United States into the Great War. Wrong. President Woodrow Wilson was a cool cucumber after the boat sunk, with the loss of life reaching a total of 1,198 of the 2,000 souls who were on board.

The ship left New York bound for Liverpool, England, on May 1, 1915. She was sunk by a torpedo form the German U-20 on May 7. When she sailed from New York harbor, she was booked to capacity. “This was, according to the New York Times, the greatest number of Europe-bound passengers on a single vessel since the year began.” Rather remarkable given that the war had been raging for ten months.

Larson gives reader lots of background information. I admit to discovering more about the politic of both Germany and the U.S., more about U-boats, and more details about the Lusitania than I ever though I would. Larson is an expert at narrative nonfiction that pulls readers into the story.

And while he is adept at making some boring topics interesting, his true success comes into his details about people. The U-20 commander, Schwieger, was a cold-blooded SOB. He didn’t think twice about sinking boats of all sizes, even those carrying large number of women and children. His main goal on each mission was to put as much tonnage as he could on the bottom of the world’s oceans and seas. The Lusitania’s captain, William Thomas Turner, was a credit to his position. I think I would have like him.

The parts of the book that I enjoyed most were the one about the passengers. Readers get to know several of the passengers. Larson paints vivid pictures of life aboard the liner.

The entire book leads up to the moment that a U-20 torpedo strikes the boat. The horrendous details that follow are enough to give readers nightmares. The sinking read much like the Titanic sinking: people jumping from the ship, the lifeboats (there were enough) not functioning properly, the debris that littered the ocean surface after the boat dropped below the waterline. To me, the most horrifying scenes were the people floating upside down in the water. They had put their lifejackets on incorrectly, thereby causing their heads to be forced underwater.

I give Dead Wake 4 stars out of 5. The details of the ships and the politics were a bit much for me. I think they could have been condensed somewhat. 

Elgin Affair

The Elgin Affair: The Abduction of Antiquity's Greatest Treasures and the Passions It Aroused by Theodore Vrettos, 220 pages

In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, the British ambassador to the Sublime Porte, Lord Elgin, acquired permission from the Ottoman Turks to conduct excavations on the Athenian Acropolis and to take various antiquities back to Britain.  In perhaps the most extensive act of vandalism in history, Lord Elgin used this permission as a blank check to strip the Parthenon of every piece of decoration his team could pry from the structure, including much of the sculpture from the pediments and roughly half of the internal frieze, as well as a column capital and a caryatid from the Erechtheum, both of which were literally sawn off in order to remove them.  Elgin answered protests with the claim that modern Greeks were unworthy of their heritage.

In Vrettos' account, all this is secondary to the Elgins' domestic woes, culminating in a high profile divorce and a lawsuit by the aggrieved husband against Lady Elgin's lover.  Aside from the identity of the actors and the suggestion that Lord Elgin's preoccupation with the marbles may have contributed to his wife's estrangement, there is no connection between the archaeological and the personal dramas.  Exasperatingly, Vrettos includes a 13 page excerpt from a letter by Lady Elgin and a 24 page trial transcript, both of which merely repeat information which is present elsewhere in the narrative.  The incorporation of this filler is sadly consistent with the superficiality of the work as a whole, which reduces "the abduction of antiquity's greatest treasures" to a subplot in favor of a not particularly passionate tale of adultery.

Tutor

The Tutor by Andrea Chapin
356 Pages

"The year is 1590, and Queen Elizabeth's Spanish Armada victory has done nothing to quell her brutal persecution of the English Catholics. Katharine de L'Isle is living at Lufanwal Hall, the manor of her uncle, Sir Edward. Taught by her cherished uncle to read when a child, Katharine is now a thirty-one-year-old widow. She has resigned herself to a life of reading and keeping company with her cousins and their children. But all that changes when the family's priest, who had been performing Catholic services in secret, is found murdered. Faced with threats of imprisonment and death, Sir Edward is forced to flee the country, leaving Katharine adrift in a household rife with turmoil. At this time of unrest, a new schoolmaster arrives from Stratford, a man named William Shakespeare. Coarse, quick-witted, and brazenly flirtatious, Shakespeare swiftly disrupts what fragile peace there is left at Lufanwal. Katharine is at first appalled by the boldness of this new tutor, but when she learns he is a poet, and one of talent, things between them begin to shift, and soon Katharine finds herself drawn into Shakespeare's verse, and his life, in ways that will change her forever."

Supposedly Katharine is the dark lady of Shakespeare's sonnets, his muse... however you would never expect it from this book.  A snore of a historical fiction novel I didn't feel any chemistry between the fictional Shakespeare and Katharine de L'Isle.

Anne Of Cleves: Henry VIII’s Discarded Bride

Anne Of Cleves: Henry VIII’s Discarded Bride by Elizabeth Norton, 191 pages

This was an interesting biography.  I admit that from this time period, Anne of Cleves is probably the wife that I knew the least about.  Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn are the two that I would have known most about, of course, but I’ve read quite a lot about the Tudor dynasty, so knew a fair bit about the other three wives also.  However, Anne of Cleves was actually pretty interesting.  She had very good family connections and, while not a major player, still was considered a pretty good partner for a marriage contract.  I had always been under the impression that she wasn’t very attractive and that was the reason that Henry VIII rejected her, but, according to this writer, that probably wasn’t the case.  For whatever reason, Anne didn’t appeal to him, but by many accounts, she was an attractive woman, probably more attractive than his sixth wife, Katherine Parr.  I found lots of interesting tidbits in this book that seemed to be a fairly good summary of Anne’s life.  Anyone wanting to find out more about this era and Anne of Cleves specifically, would probably like it.

Longbourn

Longbourn by Jo Baker  332 pages

Longbourn is the story of Pride and Prejudice from the perspective of the servants.  Baker has given names to the servants that are nameless in the original book and personalities to everyone and told the story behind the scenes.  The book mostly focuses on Sarah, the older housemaid, who has been working there since she was taken in as a child from the poorhouse.  She is now a young adult and beginning to have our own opinions and want her own life.  She becomes smitten with the new footman, James Smith but James has a past that he won’t share with anyone at Longbourn and their future is uncertain.  The book also tells a fair amount about Mrs. Hill, the housekeeper and cook, and Polly, the younger housemaid.  We do get some satisfactory explanations about the characters before the story’s end.  All in all, I thought it was a good story.  Fans of Pride and Prejudice will probably find it interesting but I think that many fans of historical fiction would like it also.