My facebook page preview tonight =)
Friday, March 23, 2012
My facebook page preview tonight =)
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Becoming Madame Mao
Title Becoming Madame Mao
Author: Anchee Min
Rating: <3 <3 <3 1/2
Summary: Reared by a mother who was the last concubine of a rich man, and a father who liked to hit his girls with shovels, Madame Mao as a young girl felt herself doomed: "I see my father hit Mother with a shovel. It happened suddenly. Without warning. I can hardly believe my eyes. He is mad. He calls Mother a slut. Mother's body curls up. My chest swells. He hits her back, front, shouting that he will break her bones."
Review: Becoming Madame Mao was a very insightful novel, of how a woman who would become one of the most powerful people in China for a time, developed from a young girl whose Mother was an abused concubine, and who at time was just a tiny child who narrowly escaped, having her feet bound, and later in life two marriages that left her heart broken. The book is written from her perspective, and from the perspective of someone else looking in from the outside. It takes the reader into the struggles of an actress and an individual who had many hardships, and while it does help you understand where they led in Madame Mao's life, it still shows how she let cruelty take over in a lot of cases in her later life. My favorite part of this novel was actually the last page, and I would recommend it to anyone, it was very thought provoking.
Author: Anchee Min
Rating: <3 <3 <3 1/2
Summary: Reared by a mother who was the last concubine of a rich man, and a father who liked to hit his girls with shovels, Madame Mao as a young girl felt herself doomed: "I see my father hit Mother with a shovel. It happened suddenly. Without warning. I can hardly believe my eyes. He is mad. He calls Mother a slut. Mother's body curls up. My chest swells. He hits her back, front, shouting that he will break her bones."
Penelope's Daughter
Title: Penelope's Daughter
Author: Laura Corona
Rating: <3 <3 <3 <3
Summary: With her father Odysseus gone for twenty years, Xanthe barricades herself in her royal chambers to escape the rapacious suitors who would abduct her to gain the throne. Xanthe turns to her loom to weave the adventures of her life, from her upbringing among servants and slaves, to the years spent in hiding with her mother's cousin, Helen of Troy, to the passion of her sexual awakening in the arms of the man she loves.
And when a stranger dressed as a beggar appears at the palace, Xanthe wonders who will be the one to decide her future-a suitor she loathes, a brother she cannot respect, or a father who doesn't know she exists...
Author: Laura Corona
Rating: <3 <3 <3 <3
Summary: With her father Odysseus gone for twenty years, Xanthe barricades herself in her royal chambers to escape the rapacious suitors who would abduct her to gain the throne. Xanthe turns to her loom to weave the adventures of her life, from her upbringing among servants and slaves, to the years spent in hiding with her mother's cousin, Helen of Troy, to the passion of her sexual awakening in the arms of the man she loves.
And when a stranger dressed as a beggar appears at the palace, Xanthe wonders who will be the one to decide her future-a suitor she loathes, a brother she cannot respect, or a father who doesn't know she exists...
Summary: With her father Odysseus gone for twenty years, Xanthe barricades herself in her royal chambers to escape the rapacious suitors who would abduct her to gain the throne. Xanthe turns to her loom to weave the adventures of her life, from her upbringing among servants and slaves, to the years spent in hiding with her mother's cousin, Helen of Troy, to the passion of her sexual awakening in the arms of the man she loves.
And when a stranger dressed as a beggar appears at the palace, Xanthe wonders who will be the one to decide her future-a suitor she loathes, a brother she cannot respect, or a father who doesn't know she exists...
Review: Xanthe is the daughter of Odysseus and Penelope, who are the rulers of the Island kingdom of Ithaca. The book Penelope's Daughter follows her from her childhood where she is moved around from her Mother's palace, to her grandparents farm and eventually into hiding at her Mother's Cousin Helen's Kingdom of Sparta. This book was very interesting to me because it went further in the story of Odysseus then I have ever delved before. I have never considered the option, that Penelope might have had a daughter, or that Helen might have returned to Sparta, after the Trojan war had ended.
And when a stranger dressed as a beggar appears at the palace, Xanthe wonders who will be the one to decide her future-a suitor she loathes, a brother she cannot respect, or a father who doesn't know she exists...
In the book, Xanthe, is sent to Sparta, because the suitors in Ithaca are actually vying for her hand in marriage as well as her Mothers, to obtain Odysseus's kingdom. While in Sparta Xanthe, gains a new outlook, goes through a sexual awakening as she goes through what we would probably call puberty, and is put through what would now be considered occult rituals that are performed by Helen and her hand maidens. Xanthe experiences many firsts in Sparta and while there she finds the strength she will need when she returns home to find what the suitors and a mysterious beggar man have in store for her and her Mother and brother.
If your looking for a slightly different take on the story of Odysseus that involves the women, this is a book I'd strongly recommend :)
Title: Finding Emilie
Author: Laurel Corona
Rating <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Summary: Lili du Châtelet yearns to know more about her mother, the brilliant French mathematician Emilie. But the shrouded details of Emilie’s unconventional life—and her sudden death—are elusive. Caught between the confines of a convent upbringing and the intrigues of the Versailles court, Lili blossoms under the care of a Parisian salonnière as she absorbs the excitement of the Enlightenment, even as the scandalous shadow of her mother’s past haunts her and puts her on her own path of self-discovery.
Review: The book finding Emilie, is based on the preface, that Emilie's infant daughter, Lili, lived, and the book goes on to describe what her life might have been like if she had lived in pre-revolutionary war France. In the introduction of the book it is explained that in reality, Emilie's daughter, and Emilie herself both died at the time of the child's birth and or very soon after but Ms. Corona does a very good job of bringing to life what Emilie's daughter might have been like if she had lived.
The book Finding Emilie rotates in chapter's from Lili's early life, to her young adult years to short scene's of her Mother's life. In Lili's chapter's you experience her growing up with Delphine, who is the daughter of one of her Mother's close friends. Lili's thinks of Delphine's Mother as her Maman, (Mother figure); Lili also must deal with Baron Lamont, who is a stricter figure in her life who tries to stifle Lili's creative and intelligent side because it is not thought to be appropriate in French society during this time period, however the Baron is not successful in "quieting" Lili in the long term.
Emilie's chapters are much shorter, and while they are enjoyable, they did not give me as much as I would have wished to know about her as a character, since the book is titled after her, but the way the book is written is very different and refreshing in my opinion. Lilli, and Delphine while they are close, both are fun characters, and have distinct personalities, although I think Delphine is more of a one dimensional character. This was a very fun read, and I would recommend it.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Title: The Last EmpressAuthor: Anchee Min
Rating <3 <3 <3 <3
Summary: The last decades of the nineteenth century were a violent period in China’s history, marked by humiliating foreign incursions and domestic rebellions and ending in the demise of the Ch’ing Dynasty. The only constant during this tumultuous time was the power wielded by one woman, the resilient, ever-resourceful Tsu Hsi -- or Empress Orchid.
The Last Empress is the story of Orchid’s dramatic transition from a strong-willed, instinctive young woman to a wise and politically savvy leader who ruled China for more than four decades. In this concluding volume Min gives us a compelling, very human leader who assumed power reluctantly and sacrificed all to protect those she loved and an empire that was doomed to die.
Review: (THIS FIRST PARAGRAPH CONTAINS SPOILERS) This is the second and final book in Anchee Min's series about Empress Orchid and the Chi'ing Dynasty in China. I must admit I was very much looking forward to reading it because I loved the first book, Empress Orchid, because of how it drew me in with all the details of scenery and lifestyle of what life was like in China for royal women during this time period. However this book had a very different feel to it. From the very beginning The Empress is faced with struggles such as losing her favorite eunuch, (who was plotted against by those she should have been able to trust) followed by the death of her only son, then the death of her fellow wife who is the first ranking empress and who was her rival in many things. And finally when she has picked her sister's son as a replacement for the throne finding him inadequate for the role he must play, and he ends up dying before her in the end.
The Last Empress to my taste was written in a very different style than the first book in the series; it felt like a lot of political events and wars surrounded by a few pages of what the empress or other main characters might be feeling. While there were many good scenes, such as when she rescues her sister's son from his abusive mother and declares him the next heir, there seemed to be far more historical "information" in the book than I was expecting compared to the first novel, which disappointed me, however it was still a very good read. If you read the first book, Empress Orchid I think it is worth it to finish up the story and read the Last Empress just DO NOT expect the same writing style.
Here is an actual photo of Empress Orchid:
<3 Elizabeth
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
By: Kate McCafferty
Rating >3
Summary: Kidnapped from Galway, Ireland, as a young girl, shipped to Barbados, and forced to work the land alongside African slaves, Cot Daley's life has been shaped by injustice.
Review: I was looking forward to this novel because I haven't read a lot about this time period and I thought it would be interesting to learn more about it. However after reading about fifteen pages into it I had to stop. The writing style did not appeal to me, and the characters just seemed flat and one dimensional. Very rarely will I not finish a book, but this is one of the few that I put back on the bookshelf without finishing it.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Rating <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Summary: The year is 1570, and in the convent of Santa Caterina, in the Italian city of Ferrara, noblewomen find space to pursue their lives under God’s protection. But any community, however smoothly run, suffers tremors when it takes in someone by force. And the arrival of Santa Caterina’s new novice sets in motion a chain of events that will shake the convent to its core.
Ripped by her family from an illicit love affair, sixteen-year-old Serafina is willful, emotional, sharp, and defiant–young enough to have a life to look forward to and old enough to know when that life is being cut short. Her first night inside the walls is spent in an incandescent rage so violent that the dispensary mistress, Suora Zuana, is dispatched to the girl’s cell to sedate her. Thus begins a complex relationship of trust and betrayal between the young rebel and the clever, scholarly nun, for whom the girl becomes the daughter she will never have.
As Serafina rails against her incarceration, others are drawn into the drama: the ancient, mysterious Suora Magdalena–with her history of visions and ecstasies–locked in her cell; the ferociously devout novice mistress Suora Umiliana, who comes to see in the postulant a way to extend her influence; and, watching it all, the abbess, Madonna Chiara, a woman as fluent in politics as she is in prayer. As disorder and rebellion mount, it is the abbess’s job to keep the convent stable while, outside its walls, the dictates of the Counter-Reformation begin to purge the Catholic Church and impose on the nunneries a regime of terrible oppression.
Review: This novel takes you into the world of a nunnery in the later part of the 1500's in the Italian city of Ferrara. The nuns live in a very sequestered world, where they avoid most contact with the outside world, except for a few concerts performed for nobles, and some occasions where they have supervised visits with family members. I for one did not know that nuns in this time period, lived such sheltered and protected lives away from society, and that so many of them were thrust into this lifestyle through no choice of their own.
The main character of this story is a young woman of noble blood , Serafina, who is thrust into the nunnery against her will, because she fell in love with the wrong man, and the book follows her struggles with rebellion, both to escape, find herself, and the betrayal and trust that define her friendships with nuns who befriend her in the nunnery. One of these people, Suora Zuana, is the dispensary mistress, who looks after the nun's health, and has many struggles of her own.
This book was an easy read, the author kept it at an easy pace, and it has been one of my favorite reads so far this year. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys strong, characters; and women who were fighting to maintain what independence they had in a time of struggle for the Church they had pledged their lives to serve.
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