Varina, the story of Jefferson Davis' wife, was fascinating.
Many years ago I read Cold Mountain, and I remember learning quite a bit about the Civil War era. So when I saw Frazier had written Varina, I had to check it out. I also read Nightwoods, which I didn't even remember until I looked it up. I didn't like that one as much...
There is so much I didn't know. Their marriage wasn't that happy, in fact, they spent much of it apart. She was much younger than him. They took in a black child that Varina found on the street and raised him as their own. This black child is the impetus for Varina telling her story. If it wasn't for Jefferson catching up with them, Varina and the children probably would have made it to Cuba -- to which all the leaders of the Confederacy tried to escape.
There is much more. Varina, in her old age, tells the story of her escape, as well as how she came to be married to Davis, to her long lost "son." It is a wonderful story that easily kept my attention.
I do wish there were an afterword about what was real and made up. Where the author found his information. How reliable is this account, etc. I love historical fiction but always want to know what facts I can rely on!
The narrator of the audio is Molly Parker, a familiar voice to me. I had to look her up on IMDB and found that she is the actress I thought. She does a great job.
If you want to learn more about the Civil War and its aftermath, I highly recommend Varina.
Published by Ecco, 2018
Audiobook obtained from libro.fm
368 pages
I've only read a couple of Isabel Allende's books, but I enjoy her style. A Long Petal of the Sea is well researched and taught me much about a period of history I knew virtually nothing about. Enjoyable -- as predicted.
The book begins in Spain, during the Civil War in the late 1930s. Victor Dalmau is a medic fighting for the Republican government, which ends up being overthrown by Francisco Franco and his Fascists. Roser is pregnant with Victor's brother's child, and she flees over the mountains into France.
They end up on a ship bound for Chili which has agreed to take some Spanish refugees. The ship has been chartered by Pablo Neruda, the famous poet. In order for Victor and Roser to be included on the ship, they must be married. So they get married, vowing to get a divorce as soon as possible. Turns out divorce is illegal in Chile, and anyway, Victor has vowed to be a father to his nephew, Marcel.
The rest of the book, ending in 1994, covers Victor's and Roser's lives, through repression, separations, government uprisings, friendships, and romances. All the time they hoped they could return to their beloved Spain at some point. (Franco didn't die until 1975.) I won't tell you if they ever did.
I feel rather stupid, because as a high school student I hosted an exchange student from Chile in early 1980, and had no idea of the political climate of that country. I don't remember asking her a thing about it. Who cares when you are 17 years old??? She wanted to be a journalist, and I do remember that it was probably a very dangerous career to choose at that time. I heard from her in 1982, and then never again...
I find Allende's use of the third person to be effective. Often, I have difficulty getting into the story if it isn't in the first person. But somehow, even with many passages about history, I find myself fascinated.
A Long Petal of the Sea is a long book (it seemed longer than 336 pages), but if you are interested in history and an epic family story, you will surely enjoy it.
Published by Ballentine, January 21, 2020
eARC obtained from NetGalley
336 pages
You would think that a book about life in an asylum during the Civil War would focus on the horrible conditions and mistreatment of the patients. Blue Asylum, while it does contain a bit of this unpleasant life, isn't really about that at all.
Iris Dunleavy has been sent to Sanabel Asylum because she wasn't a proper wife for her husband. We slowly find out exactly what actions prompted this court order, so I won't get into specifics here.
Suffice it to say, she isn't crazy. And, in fact, she is so sane that throughout the story she changes the lives of several other characters. Sanabel Asylum is run by Dr. Cowell, who lives on the island with his wife and young son, Wendell. You can imagine this is a very strange life for a young boy, to be isolated on this island.
Iris becomes friends with Ambrose who is suffering from PTSD from his experiences in the Civil War. This is how the reader gets the historical aspect of the novel, through Ambrose's eyes, as we slowly learn his story.
There are other characters that add to the richness of the setting and plot -- Mary, the wife of Dr. Crowell, the horrible matron who mistreats the patients, other patients such as the woman who swallows things and the woman who refuses to believe her husband is dead, and the chef, who is Wendell's only friend.
The pacing is slow, but steady. Blue Asylum creeps up on you and I found myself thinking about it when I was away from the book. There are some abrupt changes in the point of view, but this may have been because of the ebook ARC format, and hopefully will not be a problem with proper spacing and formatting in the final copy.
The best thing about Blue Asylum is the language. Hepinstall can really turn a phrase. I don't want to quote too much (although I could) because this is an ARC and subject to editing, but here's a small example: "A thought was coming around the corner, headed right toward him." These creative phrasings are all throughout the book and I enjoyed the language very much.
The ending is both heartbreaking and uplifting, and believable. While the historical part of Blue Asylum isn't the main focus, there's a good story here, including a bit of romance, adventure, and mostly characters to care about.
This is an adult book, and as such, I think it has limited appeal to teens. Those specifically interested in this period in history, may enjoy Blue Asylum. I would not hesitate to recommend Blue Asylum to adults who enjoy historical fiction and beautiful language.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 10, 2012
eBook obtained from NetGalley
288 pages
The Technologists is and intricately woven mystery, that will entertain the reader with a lush historical setting and surprise you with its twists and turns.
We are in 1868 Boston, and our main characters, Marcus, Edwin, and Bob, are looking forward to being part of the first graduating class from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
When unexplained terrorist events are occurring in Boston, these technologically oriented students want to help figure out what is happening during these strange events. You see, these aren't your normal bombings and shootings. First, the navigational instruments in all the vessels in port go haywire, causing substantial damage to the port and many sailing vessels. I won't tell you about the other events, but they are similarly mysterious in origin, and completely different that the first event.
No one in Boston believes that MIT will survive. They don't believe in their "hands on" type of study. The workers are afraid that new inventions may take away their jobs. They are frightened of technology. The people at Harvard don't like this new method being used. This is also the time of Darwin and his writings, which Harvard administrators are totally against. So controversy surrounds this school and its students. And, to top it all, MIT has allowed a WOMAN to attend.
The students are told that they cannot have anything to do with investigating the strange events, for fear that the school will end up being accused of contributing to them. But, no one has any confidence in the Boston police or Professor Agassiz from Harvard, who the police have asked to help.
So, behind everyone's back and in secret, The Technologists, made up of our main characters, and eventually Miss Swallow, the very bright female student, begin to do experiments and investigations in the basement of the school to determine how these attacks are being orchestrated.
There were a few unexpected twists during the eventual resolution of this mystery that were enjoyable. I certainly didn't see them coming. The book is a bit long, and at times the plot slowed, especially during the setting up and beginning of the investigation. Once The Technologists started figuring things out, the pace picked up. The amount of scientific description might be a bit much for some, but, personally, I enjoyed those parts.
Marcus has flashbacks of his time of service in the Civil War, and particularly, his time as a war prisoner. These events have, of course, shaped his life. He is the character that we learn the most about, the real main character of the story. I did wonder why we were learning these details of his past; this seemed unnecessary. But, I assumed these events were important to the story, and I was correct, so don't be frustrated. Perhaps these segments could have been shorter and more spread out throughout the story, but this is really nitpicking.
Another somewhat insignificant comment is that towards the beginning of the story, we are taken to the perpetrator's laboratory, and see things just for a couple of pages, through his/her eyes. That was the only time. I wish that part would have been either left out, or that we revisited that scene a couple more times during the story. I just felt it didn't fit--it was out of place.
The best part of my reading experience was the historical setting, and learning about the origin of MIT, and the absolute hatred of this institution by almost everyone else. The treatment of women, laborers, and of course the African Americans during this time is all touched upon. The description of the desolate marshy area where the Institute was built is fascinating, especially to those who are familiar with current day Boston. I enjoyed all of these details.
This isn't a quick, easy read. The vocabulary and sentence construction is more complicated than my usual fare. I guess you call this "literary," and I really enjoyed reading a well-written, complex, literary book for a change. I would, however, hesitate to recommend this to all but my most mature "literary" teens. This one is definitely an adult book.
Published by Random House, February 21, 2012
496 pages
Copy obtained from TLC Book Tours, for review
Rating: 3.5/5
The tour is allowing me to GIVE AWAY one copy of The Technologists! You can enter here.
Welcome to my meme, Monday Memories, where I feature
favorite books we've loved from the past. You can link to an old review, or
write something new about a beloved book from your past. Really, what's
important is not the book, but why it is memorable to you. So, have fun
reminiscing, and leave a comment below, so we can all enjoy your memories.
I also wanted to let you know about another wonderful blog
that you should check out. Ashley @ Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing does a
weekly post called Memory Monday. She has been posting about her childhood
memories of books. What's great about Ashley's site is that she is asking for
guest posts for her Memory Monday event!So hop on over there and check it out.
Gone With the Wind was my first "chunkster" book. I read this while I was in high school, and remember loving it. It might still be the longest book I've ever read...I've been trying to think if any longer, and none quite match up to the 1000+ pages of this tome. You know, it IS better than the movie, so if you think you've done enough by watching the movie, you should really read this. It's long, but it goes fast because it is well written and keeps your interest. I often have the urge to read this one again. Someday.....
Share one of your cherished book memories!
You can do a Monday Memories post on your blog. Copy my
button and link back here, so others can see all the other posts.Leave a comment below with the link to your
post.
Or, just leave one of your Monday Memories right here in the
comments.
The Last Full Measure is the story of the Civil War Battle at Gettysburg through the eyes of a 14-year-old resident, Tacy.Ann Rinaldi has told the story in an interesting and unique way, and those young people who are interested in Civil War stories should not miss this.
Tacy lives in Gettysburg with her mother and a brother, David, who is 21 and cannot fight in the war because of a crippled leg.Her two older brothers, as well as her father, are all serving as Union soldiers.
There is much accurately portrayed heartbreak – Tasy’s horse is stolen by the Confederates, many of the 400 or so free black people are rounded up and taken south to be sold as slaves, the precious family cow is stolen, and worse of all Tasy’s friend, Jennie Wade, is killed by stray gunfire.The reader feels Tacy’s pain, and also her difficulty dealing with her brother’s authority. He is unhappy about not being able to serve, and takes some of these feelings out on Tacy.
At first, I was bothered by the simple language, and what I considered lack of depth, but then I realized that this book is written for 10 to 14-year olds, and I believe that the language is appropriate.
There is plenty to balance out the sadness.There’s secret romance, a new dog, and Tacy’s friendship with Marvelous, her black friend. The tragedy at the end of the book left me feeling somewhat unconvinced, but it created a lot of drama that younger students will probably enjoy.
It’s a well-balanced, informative, interesting story of a terrible time in our country’s history. This would be a wonderful story for a classroom novel during the study of the civil war, because there is much to discuss. The book includes an afterward by the author about her research, and also an extensive bibliography.
Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing me with the e-book ARC for my honest review.
