book club: "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger

So tonight I had book club, where we mostly drink wine and eat overpriced appetizers and laugh a lot, but we do actually discuss books (unlike my other book club where we only drink wine and laugh a lot, without the books).  This time we all -- or mostly all -- read The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.  Now I have to admit I read this book several months ago, so I was kinda playing catch up with my bad memory to discuss it.  But I really, really liked this one, and it seemed like it went over well with the rest of the girls in book club, too.  It's a book that takes some getting used to.  Not only is it enormous, and you have to get over the initial shock of how long it is, but then you need to adjust to the book's constantly changing perspective between Claire and Henry and all that darn time travel.  Sometimes it was just plain hard to figure out who was talking and when...  But figuring all of that out is SO worth the investment, and you'll probably be happy you did.  Good book choice, Amanda!

Word on the street is that our next book club book is ... The Lost Symbol!!!  Yay!  That's so right up my alley.  I'm excited.  Of course, I've had my name on the hold list at the library for a while now and I've managed to move up to number 751 in line.  Unless we decide to hold our next book club in 2011, I'm going to have to break down and actually buy a book -- eek!

Good news is I just saw that my next reading list book is in, Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, so I'll start that when I finish the book I'm already reading ...  sooo many books!!  :)

beachy reads: "The Other Queen" by Philippa Gregory

I sure do enjoy some good historical smut.  Philippa Gregory is the modern queen of the genre. I’d read one other of her books before, The Other Boleyn Girl, which I wasn't a huge fan of; I thought it went into way too much detail and dragged the story out a few hundred pages too many.  I enjoyed The Other Queen quite a bit more.

The "other" queen is Mary Queen of Scots, cousin and rival of Queen Elizabeth I, and the story centers around the first couple years of an 18-year imprisonment in England that Elizabeth imposed on Mary.  Gregory paints a picture of England as a really horrible place where everyone is spying on everyone else, everyone lies, everyone is jealous, no one is safe.  It’s miserable.  When Queen Mary fled to England from Scotland looking for Elizabeth to protect her, Elizabeth instead imprisoned Mary to prevent her from trying to take the throne that she may have had more claim to anyway.   Mary is put in the care of George Talbot, the Earl of Shrewsbury, and his new wife Bess.  George falls hopelessly in love with the Scottish queen, who is known as the most beautiful woman in the world.  Anyone who knows history knows how Mary’s story ends...  It’s not a happy one.

I enjoyed this book.  I thought Gregory did a much better job on this than The Other Boleyn Girl.  It’s a very dramatic time period with interesting characters, and Gregory does a good job of fleshing out the historical record to create a good, engaging fictional story.

One of the things I’ve noticed about the two books I’ve read by Gregory is that the role of women is something she takes great pains to explore.  Let’s just say, thank goodness I don’t live in England in the 16th century!  Despite being incredibly powerful, wealthy, and smart, the female characters are also almost totally dependent on the men in their lives who pull all the strings and manipulate them to their own whims.  It’s really depressing...  so much power and yet so little, just because they're women.

After reading this, I want to go to Scotland, even though almost none of the story even takes place there, and Gregory really doesn’t make it sound all that great (she calls the Scottish “barbarians,” but then again she’s English so I guess that’s typical).  I want to go there and wear wellies and plaid skirts and cozy wool sweaters like I’m in a Ralph Lauren ad.  Doesn’t it sound romantic?! 

So a few weeks ago I put a hold at the library on the next book on my list.  Until that comes in, I’ll keep reading things for FUN.  Right now I’m re-reading one of the Sister Fidelma mysteries by Peter Tremayne.  This is my favorite mystery series, and it’s also historical fiction, but about 7th century Ireland, which is a really super fascinating time period.


* These pictures of Mary are taken from a site called Portraits of Mary, Queen of Scots

beachy reads: "The Jane Austen Book Club" by Karen Joy Fowler

The second book I read on vacation was The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler.  Basically, it’s about a group of women and one man who do just what it says: talk about Jane Austen books.  It’s more than that, though, because during the course of their meetings, you’re introduced to the backgrounds of the characters and how their lives are intertwined.  

This book is sweet and nice, and I didn’t really love it or hate it.  Maybe I didn’t give it enough attention (what with all the sun in my eyes and all), but I had trouble getting interested in the characters and caring very much about them.  Mostly while I was reading it I was just thinking about how I really need to read a lot more Jane Austen.

I hear the movie is good.  Maybe I should Netflix it.

beachy reads: "Impossible" by Nancy Werlin

In Impossible, author Nancy Werlin brings the lyrics to “Scarborough Fair” to life.  Have you ever thought about the words to the Simon & Garfunkle song?  Werlin says that she was listening to it one day and started to really pay attention for the first time, which left her “puzzled and then a little horrified.”  She says she started to ask herself questions: why does the man ask the woman to perform these impossible tasks?  Why does he hate her?  What did she ever do to him?  Are these tasks actually impossible, after all?  From this, the novel grew. 

I really, really liked this book.  It’s engaging, suspenseful and romantic and is a nice blend of fantasy and reality.  It reminds me of Twilight in some ways.  The main character is a relatable, normal, modern high school girl whose life is interrupted by a secret fantasy world that she’s forced to integrate into her public life.  I think anyone who likes Twilight would probably enjoy this, too.  It’s only missing Edward.

There are literally dozens of different versions of "Scarborough Fair," which have been traced all the way back to the Middle Ages, probably evolving from a Scottish ballad known as “The Elfin Knight.”  The elf character is a lot like the devil.  It's such a beautiful song, but there's definitely a creepy element to the lyrics.  Here's the Simon & Garfunkle version:

Are you going to Scarborough Fair? 

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Remember me to one who lives there

She once was a true love of mine

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Without no seams nor needlework

Then she’ll be a true love of mine

Tell her to find me an acre of land

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Between the salt water and the sea strand

Then she’ll be a true love of mine

Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

And to gather it all in a bunch of heather

Then she’ll be a true love of mine

Are you going to Scarborough Fair? 

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Remember me to one who lives there

She once was a true love of mine

So this is what I've been up to...

I took a break from my reading list to read some things just for fun... on a beach... in Mexico.  I’m not trying to brag.  But unless you’ve recently spent a week in perfect sunshine, hugging dolphins, drinking from a coconut, and lounging by the pool, with your biggest worry being what kind of ice cream they’ll have that day at the all-inclusive five-star resort where you’re staying ... everything I say will sound like bragging.  Sorry.  So that’s where I’ve been.  It’s been nice, and I’ve done a lot of reading.  On my week-long vacation I read three books: Impossible by Nancy Werlin, The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler, and The Other Queen by Phillippa Gregory; and of course I'm going to write about all of them.