Death of Kings by: Bernard Cornwell

The Forever War by: Joe Haldeman

The Crown by: Nancy Bilyeau

Other Books I’m Reading:

The new Dana Stabenow is on hold for me at the Library.  I think it is called Restless in the Grave.  But don’t quote me.  My mind is on the 9th century right now.

I admit I was worried about Cornwell’s Saxon Stories series after the fifth installment The Burning Land.  I thought I detected the sort of subtle aimlessness in the book that often is the sign a series is about to founder.  I should have had more faith.

Death of Kings finds Saxon Warlord Uhtred poor and living off the estates of King Alfred’s daughter Aethelflaed.  He’s still a Pagen, he’s still ready for a brawl, and he’s still very grouchy when mercenaries show up to kill him.  After foiling the attempt on his life with some sheep a shepherd and a large sword, Uhtred marches off on a peace mission to King Eohric.  Naturally it’s a trap.

The next three hundred pages are all that another installment to this series should be.  There are bloody battles, although mostly raids.  Which are actually more fun than the larger battles anyway.  There are fortune tellers and counter fortune tellers.  Traps and counter traps.  I think it’s not spoiling anything to say that Alfred finally dies, and his son Edward takes the throne.  Likewise Aethelwold who has been asking for it for several books now, finally dies in a  largely satisfying way.

Watch for the scene where Uhtred tells the people he’s attacking exactly what he’s doing, and they refuse to believe him for long enough that he has time to do exactly what he said he would.  I admit those scenes are a staple of this series.  Still I’m always amused by them.  This time their are boats.  And don’t boats make everything better?

The main problem with the book is a problem that Cornwell is saddle with by history.  There are simply an appalling number of people running around with very similar names.  Not just the Aethelwolds and Aethelflaeds and Aethelreds, but also a Sigelf, two Sigurds and a Sigebriht.  I am always tempted to wonder what these people called each other when they were alive.  Maybe Edward called Aethelflaed “Sissy”.  Maybe everyone called Aethelwold “Stumpy”.  We’ll just never know.  Yet, Cornwell pushes forward to spite the fact his word processor must be having a melt down.  I don’t blame you if you need a score card.  I certainly thought about using one.

Death of Kings does serve to remind me that Uhtred is getting old.  In his 40’s in this installment.  35 is the average life expectancy for the period.  So it seems the clock is ticking on Uhtred and his ambition of retaking his family home of Bebbanburg.  All along the books in the series have eluded to a future in which Uhtred does accomplish his goal.  Sadly, I’m thinking we’re going to have to get there soon.

As usual I’ll remind you these books are shamelessly gory and should be avoided by sensitive readers.  I’d say Death of Kings is about medium gore for the series.  Less rape than usual.  More  bodies left exposed to the elements.

Enjoyability:   Very Enjoyable.  I give Death of Kings  five stars.

Where to read this book:  Anywhere.

Further reading:  I’ve started on The Forever War, which my husband is shocked I’ve missed up until now.  Also, I’ll be headed to the Library for the new Stabenow.

The Forever War  by: Joe Haldeman 

The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau

The Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell (Hooray!!)

Other Books I’m Reading:

I’ve been knitting, and not so much with the reading this week.  Also, I have been trying to find a book free for download that I can stomach long enough to write a review.  Either I’m not trying very hard, or there isn’t much out there.  Suggestions welcome.

I read Sandra Byrds’ historical novel To Die For.  I can’t review it.  I just can’t.  The blood bath might leak onto my keyboard.  It’s a good keyboard.  To Die For is one of those novels where the more or less historically named lady falls in love with the more or less historically named man, and they can’t be together for 99% of the book.  And then they can.  There is a good deal of futzing around in very detailed period clothing at more or less historically portrayed places and events.  Toward the end Anne Boleyn loses her head.  Like you knew she would.  In short, I can’t believe I read the whole thing.

After that I did start the Ken Follett book I had.  Then Library called and said my Bernard Cornwell book was in.  Then then there was a happy dance and some snickering from the peanut gallery.  Then I went to the Library.  Which means at some later date I will have to give Ken Follett a try again.  In all fairness.  But not this week.  I’m 12 pages in to The Death of Kings and the body count is already at 13.  I just love how this guy writes.

Enjoyability:   Half a star.  I don’t know how it got published.

Where to read this book:  Nowhere that you will be seen with it.

Further reading: Bernard Cornwell.  And then some other stuff.

While the shawl is going well, it’s just a long project.  Lot’s of Bobbles and lace pattern work.  Which is great and interesting to knit.  But sometimes even a knitter just wants to veg.   So I made a couple of hats to break up the work a little.  They have the added advantage of being totally from the left over yarn pile.  So using up yarn, plus lovely hats.  I am full of win.  Here they are:

I’m partial to the green one, but they both look good on me, and stay on my head.  I may become a hat person after all.

I’d like to say that I made the pattern.  I didn’t.  I modified a pattern that my father choose for a hat I knitted for him last week.  It’s a really nice pattern.  Versatile too.  Dad’s hat was navy blue sock yarn, and didn’t have the lovely little contrasting pattern on the brim.  Go figure.  Mine are both made of worsted weight yarn, and I modified the size and brim to make them work for me.  Here is the ravelry link to the free pattern if anyone else wants to give them a try, I’ll be happy to share my notes on the mods.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/runner-beanie

Now I’m so looking forward to getting to the end of Helms Deep for another reason.  I want the leftovers for another hat.  I’m thinking Oatmeal with a dark blue pattern.  Hmmmm.   I have to go work on a shawl now.

The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay  by: Beverly Jensen   (Mostly checked out because of the Stephen King endorsement on the back cover)

The Pillars of the Earth  by: Ken Follett (Which seems unnaturally heavy)

To Die For by: Sandra Byrd

Other Books I’m Reading:

Nothing really at the moment

While I wait for my name to be next on the Library’s waiting list for the Death of Kings, Bernard Cornwell’s new installment in the Saxon Series, I thought I would go on a Science Fiction bender.  That didn’t really work out for me.  I started in on Greg Bear’s City at the End of Time.  Normally I like time shifty, time thready, loopy sorts of stories.  Somehow I just couldn’t get into this book.  I kept thinking it would get better.  ”Just ten more pages”, I kept telling myself.  Which is how I read the first 107 pages.  It didn’t work out though.  So I returned it to the Library.  It wasn’t badly done.  It just wasn’t to my taste.  Although, if you happen to dream of a city at the end of time, I understand the Chalk Princess is looking for you.  Run!

Just as I was putting The City at the End of Time down, and looking around for something else, my husband came how with the newest Jennifer Weiner.  He’d spotted it at the Library and checked it out for me.  How sweet was that???

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Jennifer Weiner elevates Chick Fic to Women’s Literature.  She’s one of the very few “women’s” writers that I really respect.  She doesn’t write down to her reader.  Her characters are often realistic, logical, and funny.  Best of all, Jennifer never shies away from showing women being really genuinely evil to each other.  If you don’t believe me, you really have to read In Her Shoes and watch for the step mother.

That said, I don’t know that Then Came You is really a rave.  The characters are interesting and sympathetic.  The pacing is good.  The plot has plenty of twists and turns.  I don’t even mind the lesbian love story.  It’s well done, and the one scene of corporeal exuberance is short mild and easy to skip if that sort of thing bothers you.  However, I get the feeling that this book was going someplace else, and some editor somewhere insisted on a happy ending.

What is it with the happy ending anyway?  Most of the really great  books on earth don’t have happy endings.  Most of them aren’t even hopeful.  Quasimodo dosen’t ride off into the sunset with Esmerelda.  He lays down next to her dead body and dies.  Mannie wins the war, but loses his best friend.  Rhett leaves Scarlett. (As far as I’m concerned there are no follow ups to this book.  So don’t even go there.  Margaret could write!)  Hester takes up her punishment again, and is buried near her lover.  Beth dies, and they always miss her.  None of these books would be classics with out, well, unhappy endings.

Then Came You starts out with heaps of poignant ending potential.  I give you poor college girl Jules who just wants her father to have a chance at rehab, and so donates her eggs to an infertility clinic.  I give you Annie, who just wants to help her family be financially comfortable so she agrees to be a surrogate.  I give you India, who suffers with infertility, and hires a surrogate.  I give you Bettina, lonely, angry step daughter of India who just wants her father’s trophy wife gone.  Each voice separate, different and interesting.  All of them three dimensional and surprising.  All of them concerned with the birth of the same baby.

And then there is a happy ending.  A rather unbelievable happy ending at that.

Read the book.  By all means read the book.  It’s very well written.  Just know that in my mind it ends differently.   Jules is left to wonder what happened to her eggs, and it makes her a better woman this sacrifice without answers.  Annie is left to read about the child she carried in the papers (famous parents) and hope that she is well, while always weighing the comfort she bought with cost she paid.  India raises a child that she loves desperately, but who she feels always compares her to another possible mother.  Bettina comes to understand her father’s love of his wife, and hates him for it.

But of course, that is my ending.

Enjoyability:   Very Enjoyable.  Four stars

Where to read this book:  This is a pot of tea, and a comfortable chair sort of book.

Further reading:  I think Ken Follett.  I’ve never actually read any Ken Follett.

The second one was Summer Flies by Holly and Ella Knits.  The first time I saw the pattern I thought it looked to fussy for me to wear.  So why would I bother knitting it?  Bamf!  The whole world was knitting it up.  The girls at knitting, and pretty much everyone on Ravelry.  Then I had to travel last week for a family emergency.  What to take?  I didn’t have anything on the needles that would be easy to carry and work on.  I did have some lovely wool my husband bought for my birthday, and a Summer Flies pattern that suddenly didn’t look so bad to me.

It worked out wonderfully.  The pattern was interesting enough to keep my interest, but not so intricate that there was cussing.  Well, there was some.  Mostly under my breath during the bind off.  Picot is my least favorite bind off.  But it looks great.  I’m pleased.  Who knew?

It does kind of make me wonder though.  What will I dislike next?

City at the End of Time  by Greg Bear

Madame Tussaud  by Michelle Moran (Mostly because the woman on the cover had huge hair.  Massive.)

Other Books I’m Reading:

Of Nobel Birth by Brenda Novak – Free with Kindle app.  

Alright, I admit it.  I’ve sort of taken the last couple of weeks off.  Christmas is always crazy in our parsonage.  Good crazy.  But still crazy.   

Now, the Christmas Tree is down, the advent calendar is put away, the preschooler is back at preschool, and all the fake pine needles have been vacuumed up. So I’m back.   

Over the holidays I did finish one book.  The first book I’ve ever read completely on the iPad.  Which I guess is a small accomplishment of sorts.  A Cold Day for Murder seems to be the fist book in the Kate Shugak Mysteries by Dana Stabenow.    Previously, I remember writing that Dana had one of the highest death to pages ratios I’d ever seen.  I was waiting for the starting pistol here too, but was surprised with a total of three deaths.  Only two of them murders.  Still and enjoyable read.  And a solid recommend for anyone who enjoys a good mystery.  

I do wonder though.  I’ve noticed that many of the Kindle, Nook, and iBooks that are offered for free are romance novels.  I’ve also seen at least two articles lately on the spike in romance novels as ebooks.  Seems we women really want to read romance novels, but are too ashamed to read them openly.  But of course on the ereader of your choice no one knows what you’re reading.  

I’ve been tempted because of this trend to download a bunch of romance novels, basically anything I can get for free, and review them here.  I kind of wonder how they are.  In fact maybe that is my new years resolution.  Every dead tree edition reviewed comes with an ebook review.  Hummm.  Food for thought.  

In the mean time I’m on a Science Fiction kick this week.  Anyone know where I can get a copy of  The Gone Away World  by Nick Harkaway?  I’ve heard good things.  

Enjoyability:  Four stars.  Although I’m sort of missing the body count in this one.    

Where to read this book: It is safe for the coffee house.  

Further reading: How about This Shared Dream by Kathleen Ann Goonan?  Although I hear I need to pick up In Times of War first.  Love Kathleen.  She’s just really hard to find around here.  

I wanted to clear the decks of all the Christmas knitting I did.  So here it is in pictures.  Mostly.

I do seem to be missing a  couple of photos and I admit they may not be the best pictures.  But my five year old looked at my photo pr0gram the other day.  Now all the event files are rearranged, and at least a dozen of them are labeled May 2089.  I don’t know how he did it.  I guess he’s just talented.

Off to organize.

Merry Christmas!

I have been reading too.  But to be honest, none of it has been anything I wanted to review in depth.

I started Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie.  I didn’t finish it.  I know it’s been well reviewed.  I know they’ve done NPR interviews etc. etc. etc.  Sorry.  I’ve read about Catherine before.  I don’t necessarily consider her that Great.  Plus, I’m a Midwesterner.  So anytime I read about Holsteins, I’m not thinking about German nobles.   The first 150 pages left me with a serious case of the who-really-cares-anyhows.

I started and finished The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory.   Historically Margret Beaufort Tudor Stafford Stanley is reckoned to be a hard and difficult woman who was set on recapturing the English throne for her son.  We know she was successful as her son Henry VII founded the Tudor line with Elizabeth York as his bride.   Turns out the fictional internal thoughts of this woman are either a very good read, or a very trying one.  I found them trying.  377 pages of inveighing against the Yorks and arguing with at least one perfectly good husband.  Bah.

I brought home The Sisters by Nancy Jensen mostly as a joke.  Bill told me to see if there was anything on the new books shelf that would interest him.  I brought him fraught chick fic.  It was funny at the time.  Then I ended up reading it for reasons passing understanding.  It’s not bad.  She doesn’t go for the obvious ending, which I appreciate.  I don’t know that it’s inspired me to keep an eye open for any of her other work.  Still, it wasn’t a total waste of two or three days.

I’ve moved on to Snuff  by Terry Pratchett.   I confess I have a soft spot for anything Discworld.  Terry just makes me laugh.  I can always use the levity.  After all, how serious can life be when you are riding through the cosmos on the back of four elephants balanced on a turtle?

Also, how do we like the new blog theme?  I decided it was time to try looking like a grown up.  I’m sure it will pass.

Eleanore of Aquitaine by Alison Weir

The Life of Elizabeth by Alison Weir

Other Books I’m Reading:

Mostly pattern books while looking for perfect Christmas gifts to knit.  

It is unusual for me to develop a love/hate relationship with an author.  I pretty much love the authors I love and hate all the others.  So Phillippa Gregory holds a special place on my private library shelves.  Many of her historical works like The Other Boleyn Girl  and The White Queen are very enjoyable to me.  On the other hand many of her works like The Fallen Skies stop me cold.  She also wrote The Wise Woman.  Which has the distinction of being one of the stupidest books I’ve read all the way through.  Of course what does it say about me that I finished the darn thing???

All that said, I was excited to hear that Phillippa was taking on the War of the Roses.  It’s no small task, if for no other reason than there are a positively indecent number of Henrys, Richards, and Edwards running around.  I really enjoyed The White Queen which is the story of Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV of England, and mother of one of my favorite people in history Elizabeth of York.  Elizabeth Woodville was also the mother of the very famous and tragic Edward V of England and his little brother Richard.  The Princes who were kidnapped by their uncle, and probably killed in the Tower of London.  Which makes the last half of The White Queen down right heart breaking.  

The Lady of the Rivers,  is about the mother of Elizabeth Woodville, Jacquetta of Luxembourg.  I confess I’d never really spared a thought for the life of Elizabeth Woodville’s mother before I picked up this book.  It turns out I certainly should have.  Jacquetta pulled something that comes up more often in the lives of women in the era than I would have thought before I started reading history books.  She was married off at seventeen to the Duke of Bedford, one of the regents for King Henry VI of England.  When the Duke who is about twenty-five years her senior, dies just over two years after the wedding Jacquetta revolts.  About two years later, she marries a mere knight for love, and in secret. And then proceeds to produce sixteen children including a future Queen Consort of England.  Neatly proving her first marriage was probably childless because of the Duke.  

That scenario of the rich widow marrying down and in secret turns up all over the time period.  Famously, Mary Boleyn, Catherine of Valois, and Mary Tudor.  Okay, some people will dispute Mary Tudor.  Still, after being even briefly Queen of France, marrying an English Duke is marrying down.  

There is a lot to like about The Lady of the Rivers.  The plot moves forward pretty rapidly, so it’s an interesting read.  There are lots of wars and rumors of wars.  Phillippa does a good job of keeping many repetitively named characters separated for the reader.  No easy task.  It’s also nice the book ends on a happy note.  For instance, Jacquetta’s trial for witch craft, and the beheading of her husband Baron Rivers happen after the time line of the book. So they do not mar this book which ends with Elizabeth heading out to meet her future husband the King of England.

The only thing I don’t like about this book is it’s handling of Margaret of Anjou the wife of Henry VI of England.  Throughout history many young women have been married off to mad Kings.  Some of them turn out to be Catherine the Great, some of them don’t.  I wonder if Margaret had fought and won would we still characterize her as flighty and ruthless, or would she be creative and courageous.  The world may never know.  

Enjoyability:  Four stars with a bullet.  I really want to read The Red Queen now.  

Where to read this book: Anywhere.  It’s  a good solid read, but you won’t want to stab people that interrupt you either.  Probably.  

Further reading: I am loving Alison Wier’s Eleanor of Aquitaine.  Partially because I just love reading about Eleanor, and partially because they had great names in the 12th century.  King Sancho Ramirez, Ermengarde and Petronilla just to pick a few.  

Still, I’ve managed to fit in a project of two for myself.  I had this hank of Yarn Pirate DK Weight yarn, which just looked so cheerful.  My last pair of Susie’s Reading Mitts was mistaken for casts three different times in one day.  So I decided I needed a slightly longer pair in a color other than cream.  The Yarn Pirate yarn, and Susie’s Mitts were made for each other.  I love how they came out.  Not as purple as I would have guessed from the yarn in the hank.  But okay.     I had quite a bit of yarn left, so I decided to make a matching cowl too.  That is where the weirdness kicked in.  The colors started pooling, but the more I knit, the more I liked how it looked.  So what’s a girl to do?   I finished the project.  And I loved how it came out too.   Look.   I found all the purple!

I can’t wait to wear it.  Now the problem.  They don’t really match.  Same exact hank of yarn, does not match.   See.  

I mean sure, they don’t clash.  But it’s not really a match.  No doubt I will be wearing them together anyway.  They’re very cheerful. 

More importantly, I had less than a yard of yarn left.  Ha!  Sometimes I impress myself.  

I have also been reading.  I didn’t finish Doc by Maria Doria Russell.  Which is very sad to me.  I will have to check it out again.  It was really shaping up well.  I did finish The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory.  It’s not really a rave, but I’ll get into that later this week.  After I’ve met my Nanowrimo count.