Cleopatra - (HC) NYTimes Bestseller indeed! Believe the hype. This is a great overview, full of surprises, intelligent hypotheses and gorgeous details, but in a very approachable package. My only criticism is the footnotes are sometimes misplaced within the text - the sentence they follow do not seem to match the note and one has to look back in the full paragraph to tie in the extra information.
The Forgotten Garden - (Audiobook) (started writing this Feb 25, hence the review is longer than the rest.)
Part gothic mystery, part family saga.
Listened to the Audio Book - reader was good but with so much of the story set in England I would have liked a bit better British accent. Themes - Connections, family, unhealthy desires for both, stories, and healing.
Nell is told by her father on her 18th birthday that she was a foundling, a child left alone on the dock in an Australian port just before the first World War, taken home by the man who found her and raised by him and his wife as their own first daughter. At the news Nell, who was the pillar for all her younger sisters and engaged to be married starts cutting ties with those who do not know her secrets and starts anew in the US. She doesn't start the search for her real family until later in life, and it is interrupted before the answers are fully found when Nell is asked to take in her granddaughter, Cassandra. Years later after Nell dies, Cassandra takes up the search and travels to England to discover a cottage on the hill and it's secrets.
Three story lines - on that that covers mid 19th C to 1913, the second from 1913 to 1975 and the 1976 to 2005, all intertwine and alternate to provide clues, connections and a damn good story. The first has all the elements of the best Gothic fiction - secrets desires, a grand property with a mysterious garden maze, an orphan who finds herself the member of an aristocratic family and at odds with her uptight family relations. But there is also surprising friendships, romances, beautiful stories and a great love of place.
Will Read more of Kate Morton's book.
The Confessions of Catherine de Medici - (Audiobook) - Thought I mentioned this one earlier but.. I was slightly disappointed in this portrayal of one of Europe's most formidable matriarch. The religious wars is a very interesting time in French History and Gortner sets it up in rich detail, but his main character seemed to be more reactionary than using her political acumen & ruthless direction that her personal letters are filled with. While it's fine to keep a sympathetic character, I found it hard to believe that Gortner's Catherine would merit the reputation of the real person.
Beatrice d'Este: Duchess of Milan 1475-1497 (E-book) - This is an older book first published in 1899, hence it is a very different writing style than some may be used to. Still it is an extensive history of one of the famous d'Este sisters, rich with references to letters, household expenses, and descriptions, all the details that come together to bring the people to life and avoid a dry scholarly tomb.
The below are from the Fall 2011 pub schedule from work - so I can't go into too much detail right now. Still, no duds in the bunch.
Circle of Secrets - (ARC) Written by Kimberley Griffiths Little (Healing Spell) another middle reader set in the Louisiana Bayou. I love her story telling.
Flyaway - (ARC) Written by Lucy Christopher, author of Stolen. A very different novel but still as beautifully written.
The Scorpio Races - (ARC) Written by Maggie Steifvater (Shiver Trilogy) An amazing, fresh, well told story.
Next up:
The Scarlet Contessa: A Novel of the Italian Renaissance (Audiobook)
A Discovery of Witches (Thanks Julia!)
The Eleventh Plague (ARC)
A Discovery of Witches (Thanks Julia!)
The Eleventh Plague (ARC)
