Review: The Kitchen House

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I lost track how many times I almost gave up reading this book. As a historical, there's something a little new in the book - the life of an Irish indentured servant in a slave holder household. Unfortunately, it's used more as a gimmick, with no exploration of how the born to slavery characters would really feel about this white girl who's placed on equal ground with them. Everyone else in the story is a character: the brutal over seer, the sadistic tutor, the weak but good hearted wife of the plantation owner, and of course, the fair minded slave owner who of course is also the father of one of the slaves who he loves dearly, but darn those societal pressures, he just can't forget that she's property. Perhaps it was a mistake reading this book so closely to having read All Souls Rising, where there's no romanticizing the life of a slave. But even then, I would have had problems with cardboard characters who remember their past at a dramatic rather than a natural pace and share information when it suits the author, not when the story would demand it.



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Review: The Last Witchfinder: A Novel

The Last Witchfinder: A Novel by James Morrow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A book narrated by another book. That threw me off at first, as the narrating books own voice is a little on the stodgy side. But it would be, thatbook is over 300 years old. But it turns out that Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica is a natural born story teller, and as the story of Jennet Stearne's journey from student to world changing author progresses, so does the narrator's side story move along, slyly pointing out how books have changed the world. Jennet's family's business is witchhunting, but like so many children, she decides to fight rather than join. Her story is a bit Moll Flanders, a bit Forest Gump, and I mean that as a compliment. I think there might be some historical inaccuracy in how now matter where Jannett goes, her past is only held against her by the most evil of antagonists, but beyond that, this is a fun and intelligent look at the power of reason against an unreasonable world.



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Review: The Widower's Tale

The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Glass weaves together many current political themes: ecoterrorism, illegal immigration, gay rights, and healthcare; throws in some instances of intellectual snobbery and agism; and even takes a stab at the death of hardcopy communication. That's a lot for one book, and yes, it IS too much. Just because a writer is good at writing from multiple perspectives (and Glass is, there's no arguing that, in my opinion) doesn't mean they have to see how far they can take that skill in one book. All of the plot lines are tied to the Darling family: patriarch Percy is the grounding character, and in the end everything does come back to him. However, some of the story threads are stretched pretty thin, while others are cut off and then picked up when it's convenient to tie up the loose ends. Perhaps it's simply a case of too much of a good thing, half of this book would have been better told by itself, either half. Together, it diminishes the whole.



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Review: Sarah's Key

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Intriguing historical fiction with an opportunity to shed a light on an event that,as the author points out, the participants tried to forget. Unfortunately, the writing is so shallow that it was hard to not get angry at the author for using such an important story to tell the really, really, really childish contemporary half of the book. The characters in both stories are flat and unoriginal, some make it all the way to stereotype level. The only thing that kept this from being a 1 star book for me was that the information dumps were very informative. Faint praise, but it's all I've got for this book.



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Review: Matterhorn

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars






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Review: All Souls' Rising

All Souls' Rising by Madison Smartt Bell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Perfect balance of character/story/setting, this is a book that tackles a big event (Haitian slave rebellion) and brings it down to a very human size. The story is told through all the various points of view that brought about an incredibly bloody and deadly event, which in a lesser writer's hand would feel like padding. But Bell takes the time to let each character not only establish their link to history, he also makes them three dimensional enough that even the "villains" of the story have their sympathetic moments. In light of how the current nation of Haiti is so often in the news, this is a timely and very good background read.



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Review: The Witch's Trinity: A Novel

The Witch's Trinity: A Novel by Erika Mailman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Basic damned if you do, damned if you don't Christianity vs. paganism witch story. The setting is a little different than most (16th century Germany, with no mention of the Reformation) and the accused woman does</> see some pretty strange things, and just when the ending seems to be going the way most of these stories go, there's a slight twist back to the hysterics that made these events possible. The epigraphical use of the Catholic church's Malleus Maleficarum as well as having the investigating friar use the book adds some historical weight.



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Review: You

You by Charles Benoit

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The first few pages in I thought I was going to hate this book. I didn't think that the story would support the second person POV, I thought that the main character wouldn't hold my interest, and I expected the supporting characters to be one dimensional because that's what usually happens in second person POV. I was wrong on all accounts. Fifteen year old Kyle has failed on so many of the levels that he others have set for him that he has almost failed himself. It is the "almost" that provides an opportunity for the intriquing new kid in school to open a window (literally and metaphorically) for Kyle to escape his downward spiral. To say any more would spoil a tremendously good dark story.



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Review: Scaramouche

Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I am truly ashamed that I had never heard of Sabatini before I went looking for a historical fiction about the French Revolution. I had no idea that "The Sea Hawk" "Captain Blood" were books before they were two of the best 1)Pirate, 2)Sword Fight, and 3)Errol Flynn movies of all time. Now I have discovered that the man who came up with those ideas also wrote a book that at least equals Dumas' "The Three Musketeers" in every way.



Andre-Louis, our hero in every way (and that is perhaps one of the few weaknesses of this book, as another reviewer points out, he's too perfect at everything he turns his hand to) starts life as a cynical young lawyer, raised to be a gentleman. Circumstances force him to see that the class system in late 18th century France isn't the way he wants to live, his wit and bravado put him in danger, and soon he is living a life incognito as Scaramouche, the actor (to live on forever in Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", no less). The Revolution rolls on, and Andre-Louis rolls with it, now reinventing himself as a fencing teacher. A very, very good fencing teacher, which leads him back into confrontation with the one man who caused his first run from the status quo. Along each of his lives, Andre-Louis runs across a woman he thinks of as his cousin, but only someone who's never read a historical romance can't see where that's going to end up. The ending is cliche for this genre, but the path to that finish is pure fantastic escapism.



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Review: The Tailor of Panama

The Tailor of Panama by John le Carré

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


My first le Carré, and although I understand that it's not his typical work, I can still understand why he's not only popular but well respected. This is a writer who is a master of the slow but never boring reveal. The setting is incredibly detailed without ever resorting to information dump, and every character breaths. If only the satire hadn't become so predictable, this would have been a really good book.



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