Ok, so I’m bored with Blogger again and have moved back to WordPress. Here’s my new blog address: https://hermionesknapsack.wordpress.com/
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My second post about spring poetry
My third post about atom bombs and japanese-related poetry.
My fourth post on book reviews.
I have moved to a new blog as I wanted a change of scenery. Hope to see my regular readers over there! Here’s the new address with a new post: http://hermionesknapsack.blogspot.com/2015/04/kids-cafe-and-kraken.html
The Dream Lover: A Novel of George Sand by Elizabeth Berg
To be published: March 31, 2015
George Sand was way ahead of her time. The book starts out on the day Aurore (Sand’s real name) decided to leave her home in the French Countryside and her husband Casimir and try her luck at becoming a real novelist in Paris. It is a trial separation from her husband, and the story goes on to explain how she came to this point by jumping back and forth between her birth and after her move to Paris. She starts writing for a journal magazine when she is publishing her first couple of books and relying on her husband for income, to becoming totally independent with her own money and a string of lovers, both male and female. She starts dressing and acting like a man and eventually takes the pen name, George Sand. George is friends with writer Victor Hugo, artist Eugene Delacroix and composer Franz Liszt. She most famously tries to court the famous French actress Marie Dorval, composer Frederic Chopin and writers Alfred de Musset and Gustave Flaubert. 3 stars.
I have always been fascinated with George Sand, but never knew anything about her. So when I saw this historical fiction, I jumped at the chance to read about her. My biggest gripe about this book was the length. The book started off interesting, but then got really tedious. It was if the author was turning the book into an academic nonfiction instead of a historical fiction. It became another one of those Advanced Readers Copies that I was sloughing through, having to review because I promised to, instead of because I was enjoying it.
Overall, I really enjoyed the story and she was an intriguing character both in her personal and professional life, a woman who didn’t take no for an answer in an age when women always took the backseat and did whatever their husbands told them to do. I never knew that she had children and it was cool that her son got to apprentice with Eugene Delacroix, the Romantic French painter so famous for paintings like Liberty Leading the People (28th July 1830), and later became a writer in his own right. George was also very political, even starting her own political journal and supporting worker’s rights. She led a pretty sad life with her father and brother dying young, her mother abandoning her, her tempetuous relationship with her grandmother, and her horrible relationship with her husband. It seems like she never really found happiness in love, but only in the her books. I would like read some of her own writing and would pick either Lelia, Indiana, or Consuela.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author, in exchange for my honest review.
Prudence (The Custard Protocol: Book One) by Gail Carriger
Published 3/17/15
Prudence (Rue to her friends) has been raised by Lord Akeldama (a vampire), while her mother Alexia (preternatural – one who has no soul) and father Conall (a werewolf) are living in his 3rd closet next door. Rue is a metantural, and has the ability to neutralize and temporarily steal supernatural powers. Set about 20 years after the events of The Parasol Protectorate series, Prudence is now a very proper young lady and has been given a dirigible and given the mission to get some very special tea from India. She promptly painted it red and black to look like a giant ladybug and named the ship “The Spotted Custard”. Her best friend Primrose is coming as her companion, along with Prim’s brother Percy (the resident scholar) and the rogue engineer Quesnel. Once they get to India, they realize that things are not as they seem. A brigadier general’s wife has been abducted and with the help of some very familiar werewolves, Rue and her crew set out to find her and the reason why she was abducted. Recommended for ages 16+, 4 stars.
I have been waiting for this book forever, ever since finishing the last book in The Parasol Protectorate series, which I adored. This book was awesome and definitely worth the wait, though I had to re-read Timeless as I couldn’t remember anything from it because it had been 3 years since I read it. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot-line, but suffice it to say, there are way more were-creatures than you can possibly imagine. Miss Sekhmet was a very intriguing character as well, and I’m hoping we will see more of her as the series progresses.
As other reviews I have read have mentioned, there was a distinct lack of romance in this book. The author several times hinted at a possibility, but it seems we’ll have to wait till the second book for that scenario to come to fruition. The book was hilarious, as is usual with her books, usually involving occasions where Rue has stolen someone’s powers and then in left bereft of clothing and has to walk back starkers, or arguments with her mama. In Chapter Seven, there is this quote about vampires: “One could not blame people for not disliking vampires. Vampires were like Brussels sprouts – not for everyone and impossible to improve upon with sauce.” Or that section in Chapter nine where she basically propositions Quesnel to tutor her in the ways of l’amour, “in a trial position…a low risk, scientifically experimental situation,” which pretty much scandalizes playboy (despite his reputation). There is a lot of negativity towards foreigners, especially those who are not white skinned, but that goes with the time period the book is set in (i.e. the 1890s).
Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author, in exchange for my honest review.
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