Review: The Crown
“An aristocratic young nun must find a legendary crown in order to save her father–and preserve the Catholic faith from Cromwell’s ruthless terror. The year is 1537…”
Nancy Bilyeau, THE CROWN
THE CROWN, by Nancy Bilyeau, is 402 pages. Last month, I received an advanced reader copy for review from the publisher, Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, and I’m thrilled to finally share my excitement over it.
When THE CROWN begins, young Dominican novice, Joanna Stafford, has just broken the strict rule of enclosure of her priory to attend the public burning of her beloved cousin, Lady Margaret, for treason against King Henry VIII. Determined to provide comfort and prayer to her cousin, even if just from afar, Joanna embarks on a journey that she is ill-prepared for in all aspects.
The unexpected intervention of Joanna’s father leads to their arrest, and they are sent to the Tower of London to await their fate. When the scheming Bishop of Winchester hears of Joanna’s imprisonment and station at Dartford Priory, she suddenly becomes of use to him. He threatens to torture her father to death unless she helps him find the ancient crown of Athelstan that he tells her will change the political landscape of the country and save the monasteries from Cromwell’s destruction.
Upon Joanna’s return to Dartford, she becomes a pawn in a game played by powerful, greedy men. When secrets, schemes, and murder taint the priory, Joanna is forced to confront her beliefs and make difficult choices in order to save her father and her way of life.
THE CROWN is every bit as exciting and suspenseful as the jacket copy and descriptions promised. Bilyeau kept me turning pages and second guessing my predictions late into the three nights it took me to devour it. Joanna is an incredibly endearing character. Her internal struggles to maintain obedience while satisfying her curiosity and doing what she thinks is right make for excellent tension and story development. The supporting cast of monks, novices, detectives, and politicians is every bit as fascinating as Joanna, and their personal stories and contributions to the plot provide many layers of intrigue. In addition to the masterfully drawn plot and interesting characters, the prose is compulsively readable and stylish, and will satisfy the spectrum of readers who love history, suspense, and literature.
If you enjoy books by Philippa Gregory and Ken Follett, I highly recommend THE CROWN. It is an outstanding debut by a talented writer, and I was thrilled to find out that Ms. Bilyeau is working on a sequel to the novel.
For more on the author, visit her website at http://www.nancybilyeau.com/index.html
2011 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
The Right Time to Write
Picture my Perfect Writing Environment (PWE): Sloppy Joe’s coffee mug on the right. Hemingway photo book and pencil set on the left. Zelda Fitzgerald books and gallery pamphlet on the right. Two Penguin erasers straight ahead. Various notes and research books scattered about. Bailey the dog curled up in my reading chair. My little one napping. Chopin piano mix playing on Pandora.
But notice that I said my “perfect” writing environment. More often than not, the photo books are missing because I was flipping through them while making lunch and forgot to put them back. The little guy who is supposed to be napping has stolen the Penguin erasers and is playing with them. The dog is barking at deer in the front yard.
When the perfect writing alchemy isn’t achieved, I can often be found clicking through photos on Facebook, catching up on Twitter, or wandering through the house, performing chores, grumbling to the Muse in my head about a dearth of coffee or a surplus of noise.
So imagine my surprise last week, when I found myself sitting at my oldest son’s hockey practice (well, that’s not a surprise, we’re at the rink five days a week) with my two younger sons occupied with other younger siblings, team parents in conversations with each other or their cell phones, and me, alone, staring at my middle son’s drawing pad and pencil. A scene idea started tugging on my sleeve, so I thought I’d jot down some notes that I could use later in the PWE.
In what seemed like moments later, my youngest son was tugging on my sleeve, telling me that the team was off the ice. I looked at the paper and realized I’d written a lengthy scene–several pages, front and back–of a pivotal moment in the book, right there on my child’s drawing pad.
I think you can see where I’m going.
I learned a valuable lesson that day: whether I’m in my PWE or an ice-cold, smelly hockey rink surrounded by noise and people, sometimes the right time to write is right now.
Right here and now.
I need that reminder every now and then, so I thought I’d remind you writers, too.
So go. Now. Write.
Vote for a Title
I need your help.
I need a working title for my WIP (“work in progress” AKA my new novel.)
Many writers wait until the end of the process to pick a title, but I’m very unsettled by not having a name for my baby, even if it could be changed at a later date. My original working title, THE CONFESSIONS OF MRS. F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, can’t be used because apparently there was a book released by my publisher with a similar “Confessions of…” title.
I can’t reveal much about my novel, but I can tell you that Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald are characters. I am going to list the titles I currently have in the running and, if you are so inclined, please a) react with your gut when you read the titles, and then b) read my thoughts and tell me if you still feel that way. The most important reaction, however, is your gut because it’s what would lead you as a buyer to be intrigued by a book. And while literary merit is of paramount importance to me, my publisher would not be pleased if I ignored cold hard reality (AKA sales appeal.)
Without further ado:
1. ZELDA’S DIARIES
2. ZELDA, RENDERED
3. THE RENDERING OF MRS. F. SCOTT. FITZGERALD
* * *
My thoughts on each:
1. ZELDA’S DIARIES seems to have commercial appeal and has a similar sound to the title of my forthcoming novel, HEMINGWAY’S GIRL.
2. The word render loosely means to create something artistically and also, to burn. Both definitions apply literally and figuratively in the novel.
3. Again, render is important. Also, Zelda resented being thought of only as “Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald” instead of as an individual, so this title has layered meanings.
* * *
Okay, so now what do you think?
I would be very grateful if you would give me your thoughts, or if you have other suggestions, feel free to list those.
Thank you, in advance.
*Photo courtesy of xihearthe80sx at DeviantArt.com
Review: Diamond Ruby
Joseph Wallace’s novel, Diamond Ruby, was published in May of 2010 and is 459 pages. It was a nominee for Goodreads Best of 2010 Historical Fiction and it was an Indiebound Next Pick. I purchased a signed copy from Joe’s local indie bookseller, The Village Bookstore in Pleasantville, N.Y., in support of #IndieThursday on Twitter, and after finishing it, I am so happy to have my own signed copy for my bookshelf. I absolutely loved it.
Set in the twenties in New York City, Diamond Ruby is the story of a young woman thrust into the role of caregiver for her family after the devastating Spanish influenza epidemic. With a combination of fierce love for her nieces, stubbornness, and a baseball pitch as good as any Major League player, Ruby manages to take care of her family, shatter stereotypes, and inspire suffragists by playing in an all male league.
It doesn’t take long, however, for predators from the KKK, to Prohibition rumrunners, to gangsters to figure out how to exploit Ruby’s vulnerability. With the help of her family, her friends, and Babe Ruth himself, however, Ruby becomes a formidable force for more than just the opposing teams.
Diamond Ruby is an excellent period piece. Wallace brilliantly balances history and prose, and connects his readers to the time by involving his characters in the events of historical importance. While I had a surface knowledge of the Spanish influenze epidemic, I had no idea how quickly it destroyed those who caught it. I was fascinated to learn about the beginnings of the Coney Island Boardwalk, disturbed to read about the prevalence of the KKK in New York at the time, and amazed that I’d never realized how vulnerable sports players could be to gambling and illegal activity.
Diamond Ruby is one of the few books where the light at the end of the tunnel is impossible to see and the ending, equally impossible to guess. The suspense and narrative tensions reach full throttle by the last third of the book, and readers will be unable to put it down. I don’t want to reveal anything to you about the ending of Diamond Ruby, but you should know that I laughed, I cried, and I cheered.
Inspired by the true story of Jackie Mitchell–the girl who struck out Babe Ruth–Diamond Ruby is a fine piece of historical fiction by a fine writer. I give this book my highest recommendation.
My Favorite Books of 2011
Here are my top ten favorite reads of 2011 (though not all of them were published this year.) As usual, choosing my top reads was an agonizing task full of much internal debate, additions, deletions, momentary decisions to expand the list beyond ten, or break it into categories. In the end, I decided that I simply had to pick my favorites–the books I gift often, I reread, or that have somehow changed my view of the world, or fiction, or both.
All of the books are either historical fiction or straddle time periods, and all are exquisite. I linked my reviews of the novels to their titles if you’d like more information about them.
Without further ado, and in no particular order…
The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain
A Good Hard Look, by Ann Napolitano
Those Who Save Us, by Jenna Blum
A Secret Kept, by Tatiana de Rosnay
Everything Beautiful Began After, by Simon Van Booy
Letters From Home, by Kristina McMorris
The Soldier’s Wife, by Margaret Leroy
Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles
The Distant Hours, by Kate Morton
The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters
I’d love to hear if any of these novels made your top ten lists. If not, tell me your favorite reads of 2011.
Review: THE STORMCHASERS
“Karena’s whole body flushes hot, then cold. She sits on the edge of her desk and looks around the little white room, as if somebody else is there to confirm that yes, this is it. The call. The call she’s been expecting, rehearsing for, dreading for twenty years.
‘Yes, I have a brother Charles,’ she says. ‘He’s my twin. Is everything all right?’”
The Stormchasers, Jenna Blum
The Stormchasers, by Jenna Blum, was published in 2010 and is 369 pages. I wanted to read this novel because I loved Blum’s earlier novel, Those Who Save Us, about a German woman during the Nazi occupation. I was also intrigued by the premise of The Stormchasers, about adult twins torn apart by a terrible secret from their past and reunited in Tornado Alley. The novel was every bit as fascinating as I’d hoped.
When The Stormchasers begins, Karena Jorge is turning 38, but in spite of her newspaper job and close friends, her life feels empty. She feels the vacancy of her separation from her bipolar, storm-chasing twin, Charles. Before the day is over, she gets the call she’s been anticipating for years–a psychiatric ward in Kansas contacts her looking for the family of a man who has just checked in. Once Karena is able to get to the hospital, her brother is gone, but she is determined to find him. Karena convinces her newspaper to send her on assignment with a group of storm chasers for a story, while she searches for Charles.
From the danger and thrill of chasing tornadoes, to the beginnings of a love affair, Karena gets more than she bargained for at every stop. When her past collides with her present, she finds that the only way around the storm is straight through it.
I read The Stormchasers in four nights. Blum’s descriptions of turbulent weather are riveting, frightening, and invigorating, and her family narrative is every bit as rich. The setting and plot are unique and unpredictable, and the ending is very satisfying. Blum does a brilliant job of giving characters redemption without letting anyone off the hook, which to me, makes the best kind of ending.
While Blum’s earlier novel, Those Who Save Us, was very different from The Stormchasers, both utilize a split time period narrative structure, memorable characters, and descriptions so clear I envisioned them as movies while I read. Blum is fearless and unflinching in her writing, and it’s no wonder she’s an internationally bestselling novelist. She penetrates the heart of what it is to be human, to make choices, and to face the consequences of those choices head-on.
Fans of Jodi Piccoult and Caroline Leavitt will love The Stormchasers. I can’t wait to see where Blum’s next novel will take me.
Guest Post at Writer Unboxed
Greetings!
Today I’m guest posting at Writer Unboxed from “The Writing Cave,” where I turn a journey deep under the ground into an extended writing analogy (because writers turn everything into an extended writing analogy.)
Won’t you join me?
Dystopian Book Recommendations: Misery Reading Round Up
“He had…discovered the outermost limit of faith and, in doing so, had located the exact boundary of despair. It was at that moment that he learned, truly, to fear God.”
THE SPARROW, Mary Doria Russell
Several years ago I was in an interfaith book club that read only spiritual books. Sadly, it dissolved as people moved on and away, but it was during that time that I had asked a dear priest friend of mine his favorite work of fiction, with strong faith elements. He replied, without hesitation, THE SPARROW, by Mary Doria Russell.
Father Michael, you must be nuts.
I forgot about the book until one of my blogger friends, Heather Johnson, recommended it to me. I bought it, couldn’t put it down, and was depressed for weeks afterward.
And now, I have to recommend it to you.
It has taken me a month since reading it to figure out how to encourage you to read it when it made me so miserable, when yesterday, I saw someone write on Twitter that she enjoyed novels that made her miserable. I realized that in some sick way, I do, too. It’s like a car accident–I can’t look away.
I can’t do justice to the elegance of prose, the depth of theme, and the complexity of the characters and their interactions in THE SPARROW because Russell is one of the finest writers of our generation. The reason I was so devastated by the novel was because of how much I loved the characters. I’ve never met a more “real” cast of people, and even though I knew from the first chapter that only one of them would make it back from a mission to another planet–and horribly scarred, physically and emotionally–I couldn’t stop reading.
I haven’t loved and felt this horrible after a book since THE ROAD, a novel set in post-apocalyptic America, where the burning question of the book is will the father have the courage (?) audacity (?) to shoot his son with their one bullet before he, himself, dies, so the boy is not left to roaming bands of meat-hungry cannibals?
If you haven’t read it, you must.
And along this line of misery reading, I have to recommend THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY. I’m sure most of you have heard of it: it’s LORD OF THE FLIES meets SURVIVOR on steroids. Teenagers from each district of another version of a post-apocalyptic U. S. battle to the death for one victor to win food and prizes for his or her impoverished home city. It’s brutal and horrific and I couldn’t put it down.
So, there you have it: a collection of books with high marks in writing, plot, character development, and devastation. Have you read any of these books? Do you enjoy reading books that make you miserable? Do you have any to add to the list?
Review: FALL OF GIANTS
Fall of Giants, by Ken Follett, was published in September of 2010 and is 985 pages. I am a huge fan of Follett and was thrilled to win this book from a giveaway at the Gutenberg Girls Blog. I was nervous to dive into this massive novel because I’d heard so many lukewarm reviews, but it is, without a doubt, my favorite Follett novel.
Fall of Giants begins with a six page cast of characters; it is, after all, Book One of a Century Triology. I found the cast pages too intimidating, so I dove right into the book at Chapter One. Within the first several pages I was thoroughly engrossed, and even after nearly one thousand pages, I never had to consult the six page character list.
Every character in the novel is distinct and fascinating, and represents a country or viewpoint of the world leading up to and through WWI. Most notably, but not exclusively, there are the working-class coal miners from Wales, the British aristocrats, the Russian nobility and peasantry, the militaristic upper class Germans, and the political Americans. The lives of the men and women from each level of society and every country are intertwined by work and love, and Follett brilliantly uses his characters to demonstrate how class warfare, passion, and pride led to the the first World War.
Follett is a master plotter. He keeps the reader riveted on every page of his thousand page novels because every single scene is full of tension, fascinating circumstances, memorable characters, and graphic detail. Nothing is spared, and you will flinch, cry, gasp, and blush many times throughout the novel. His prose is so vivid that it plays like a movie, and this will, I hope, become a series as his earlier novels have.
If you enjoy epic novels of love and war, I highly recommend Fall of Giants. My only complaint is that I have to wait until next fall to read the sequel.
For more on Ken Follett, visit his website at http://www.ken-follett.com/.
