The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe — 9781401341336 — ****

Genre: Historical Fiction/Fantasy Fiction
Time to Read: 6 Days

Short Summary:
Connie Goodwin–a Harvard student of Colonial History–is in search of a unique source to base her dissertation on when her mother asks her to clean out her deceased grandmother’s long abandoned house in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Despite her reluctance, Connie agrees, only to discover that the source she has been looking for was once on the bookshelves of the very house her mother has asked her to prepare for sale. An antique key with the words “Deliverance Dane” on a tiny piece of paper rolled up inside of it fall out of her grandmother’s bible, sending her on a quest for answers. Realizing that Deliverance Dane is the name of a woman who lived in Salem, Massachusetts in the late 1600s, Connie begins to dig into the past, learning about herself in her quest for Deliverance Dane’s long lost book.

I was a little uncertain about this book at first. The opening, during which Connie takes her oral examination at college, is a little mind boggling, and she does a lot of jumping between 1991 and the 1680s and ’90s before she settles into a good pattern. Once I grew accustomed to Katherine Howe’s writing style, however, I found that the book grew exponentially better as it progressed until I had 100 pages left and wanted to know the ending then and there.

The history in The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane feels amazingly well researched and is quite fascinating. Connie’s research is both historical and genealogical, and the added magical element is very well done. Katherine Howe did an excellent job with the herbalism that is the root of the magic, and she shows a great deal of respect for the wiccan religion, skirting the stereotypes and sharing a modern and realistic point of view of the hysteria in Salem. A modern witch will appreciate her tact, a history enthusiast will be pleased with her care and a lover of books with seemingly real magic with be pleased with her story as a whole.

There is also a romantic element in The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, but it doesn’t overpower the main story. It just flows along with the plot, enhancing it without changing it. As an anti-romance book reader, I appreciated its subtly.

Over all, this is an excellent book. I would recommend it to anyone with an appreciation for history, magic and realistic characters and plots.

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Sun Going Down by Jack Todd

Sun Going Down by Jack Todd — 9781416550488 — ***

Genre: Western
Time to Read: 32 Days

Short Summary:
Sun Going Down is an epic western novel that starts off on a steamboat on the Mississippi River in 1863 and ends in Nebraska in 1933. It follows Ebenezer Paint and his decedents through their lives out west, beginning at a time when the cowboys were real, cattle-drives were a way of life, Indians still rode free and life was quieter and simpler. America grows as the Paint family struggles and thrives through history. Based in part on letters and memoirs of the author’s own family, this novel is true-to-life, its characters are real, and their struggles and triumphs capture the heart and the imagination.

How to review a book that is sometimes impossible to put down, and other times difficult to resist throwing across the room in frustration? Sun Going Down is nearly impossible to summarize because it covers so much ground that you risk giving parts away in order to summarize others. It covers a lot of topics and spans four generations. Sometimes I loved it, sometimes I hated it, but over all, I liked it. But not. Let’s just say I have mixed feelings about this one, but mostly catch myself saying it’s a good book.

The thing that frustrated me the most while reading it was the change of main characters. Obviously, it has to happen in a book that spans 130 years, but the way Todd does it (in some instances) drove me crazy! The first change from father to sons was good, but from son to granddaughter bothered me, and when it went from granddaughter to great granddaughter with only 40 or so pages left, I wanted to scream!

His treatment of his characters also got to me. He waits until you develop an appreciation for them, then he turns on them and puts them through the worst hardships! You would expect as much when taking the time period and their way of life into consideration, but sometimes it seems like they can’t catch a break, and even when they do, it’s not as good as you think!

It is a very slow read, but not in a bad way. Leisurely, I guess you could say. The first third felt like a prologue, and the final quarter felt like a drawn-out summery of a conclusion, but the meat of the story, the main middle portion, was excellent. I caught myself wishing he had written it as a trilogy. Perhaps if it was broken up into three separate books, I would have enjoyed it more, because I would have been able to put it down and take a bit of a break, then go back to it. Then again, it was so slow going that I might not have picked up the second book. At least not for a very long time.

All that being said, it is a good book. It’s very rich with history, the characters walk off the pages (spurs jangling) and tell you their stories, and you fall in love with them, cheer them on, hate them, and want to hold their hands and help them through. Western isn’t my usual genre, so a regular reader of books of this nature will probably appreciate it more than I did, but I did enjoy it, and I would recommend it to someone who can tolerate a story line that is brutally realistic with characters living difficult lives in difficult times.

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The Altar of Bones by Philip Carter

The Altar of Bones by Philip Carter — 9781439199084 — ****

Genre: Thriller
Time to Read: About one week
Publication Date: 8 March 2011

Short Summary:
The Altar of Bones by Philip Carter is a story about a legend passed down through time. The Altar is said to be a fountain of youth that has been guarded by women of the same family for generations. The quest for the altar and its promise of unending youth has been the obsession of many. It has caused betrayal, heartbreak, assassination and conspiracy almost from the beginning. Now, a young woman has discovered that her bloodline flows from the generations of keepers of the Altar of Bones, and her estranged grandmother has tasked her with protecting it from covetous hands. Her quest takes her from America to Paris, then on to Budapest and beyond, running from the Russian mob, the KGB and an American “kingmaker,” all of whom covet the secret that she has been charged with keeping.

First off, I have to say that this is an amazing book! I must admit that it took a little while for me to really get into it, because it jumps around a bit in the beginning, from the present day to the 1930s and back again, changing characters and generations before seeming to settle on one character, then jumping again and finally introducing the main character. Once I got passed that point, however, I really got caught up in the story.

The Altar of Bones by Philip Carter is one of those books that are very difficult to put down. It is chalk-full of adventure and excitement. Car chases, gun battles, spies and betrayals. There is a crazy but beautiful female assassin (who somewhat reminded me of Xenia Onatopp from the James Bond movie GoldenEye), a greedy old mogul who has been declared an American Kingmaker, an assassination cover-up, and a race to find this fountain of youth in order to protect it from the Russian mob, the KGB, and other covetous hands. It also takes a few pages out of history, providing flashbacks to a presidential assassination, the tragic end of a doomed movie starlet, and a harrying escape from a Russian labor camp.

The two main characters are easy to admire. The friendship between them develops naturally throughout the story, instead of being forced upon them, and while they are both slightly “super” human, they aren’t so over-the-top that they seem fake. The “bad guys” have enough human traits to be realistic antagonists, instead of just purely evil villains. The magic behind the story feels like folklore, which I find gives it more believability than your typical magical sub-plot. When added together, this makes the entire story easy to get lost in, and to believe, at least on some level.

I would recommend this book to any fans of the genre. It is exciting, rock ‘em sock ‘em at its very best. There were a few points where I, as a woman, said to myself: “This is clearly written by a male author,” which isn’t something I generally run across (sometimes I find that a book is clearly written by a female, but generally books feel gender-neutral to me when written by either men or women), and some female readers may not enjoy this one, especially if they select it to give the genre a try for the very first time. Over all, however, Philip Carter’s The Alter of Bones is an exciting, mile-a-minute page turner that any action fan is bound to enjoy.

(I should note that this review is based on a proof copy of the book. It will be on store shelves on March 8, 2011. This is Philip Carter’s first novel, so I cannot refer you to any of his other works while you wait, but please add it to your list for the spring and keep on reading!)

Check out Philip Carter’s author site at Simon & Schuster!

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The Eight by Katherine Neville

The Eight by Katherine Neville – 9780345366238 -*****

Genre: Fiction/Historical Fiction/Adventure
Time to Read:  Eleven Days

Short Summary:
Katherine Neville’s The Eight follows three women on parallel quests two hundred years apart.

In the 1790s, novices Mireille and Valentine are sent out from the Montglane Abbey with pieces of the Montglane Chess Service–a legendary chess service that once belonged to Charlemagne and that is said to have a mystical power. Charged with keeping the pieces out of the hands of those who would use that power for evil, Mirelle and Valentine flee to Paris and find themselves in the midst of the French Revolution.

In the 1970s, Catherine is sent on a business trip from New York to Algeria. Her firm sends her to work with the newly formed OPEC, but a friend has charged her with finding pieces of the Montglane Service that are believed to be hidden there. On her quest for the pieces, she learns that there are some who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the mythical service and finds herself in a game for her life.

Katherine Neville’s The Eight is exciting and addictive.  It is full of action and danger, rich with historical facts and myths and splashed with historical figures, from a young Napoleon Bonaparte (before his famous campaigns) to the poet William Wordsworth. I have to admit, I will never look at the game of chess the same way again.

I am not a chess player, and was a little concerned that I would get lost because the book is written around the adventures of people trying to secure the Montglane Chess Service and several of the characters are chess players, themselves. Thankfully, though the chess theme remains throughout the novel, Katherine Neville explains the relevant rules of the game very clearly, and only describes parts of one chess game through the eyes of a person who doesn’t play chess, herself. Once I discovered this, it was beyond difficult to put the book down.

My only frustration is that she follows the lives of people two hundred years apart and I often found that when she switched from one time period to the other, I wanted to continue following the first plot and by the time she would change back, I’d want to keep on with the second. I was even almost tempted to read the 1970s plot, then go back and read the 1790s plot. As difficult as it is to read in order, I encourage those who decide to read this book to read it as written. The plots compliment each other, and if you read one then the other, you will miss out on some parts, and other things will be given away by one plot before you can read them in the other.

I very highly recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure and appreciates history, mystery, danger and a hint of romance. If you liked Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code, you will love this book (Keep in mind that The Eight was written fifteen years before DaVinci Code. I would not be surprised to learn that Dan Brown is a Katherine Neville fan.). Just don’t skim or skip–as attempting as it may be–or you’ll miss something important.  This book is definitely worth taking the time to enjoy, though you may not find putting it down an option.

(Note: The Next book I will be reviewing is The Fire, the sequel to The Eight)

Check out Katherine Neville’s web site!

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The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde – 9781593081751 – ***

Genre: Gothic Fiction; Horror; Fiction
Time to Read: Nine Days

Short Summary:

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is a story of a young man named Dorian Gray. When it begins, he is standing for his friend, the artist Basil Hallward, who covets his youthful good looks and is creating what is to be his best painting: A portrait of young Gray. When Basil reluctantly introduces the wide-eyed youth to his friend Lord Henry Wotton, the innocent, boyish Dorian listens to all the things Lord Henry has to say about the importance of youth and beauty. Dorain begins to become obsessed with his own youth and beauty, and cries out a prayer that the portrait Basil has painted will age and allow him to retain his good looks. Thanks, in part, to Lord Henry’s bad influence, the impressional Dorian’s gentle nature begins to turn and, one day, when he realizes that the painting is changing instead of him, he takes joy in it, saying that the painting will be his conscious. Unfortunately, despite the fact that he constantly says he will change and be a better person, his good heart is poisoned, first by Lord Henry’s influence, than by his own behavior, but he retains his youth and beauty as the painting grows ugly and evil.

This is basically a book about morals, conscious, and the dangers of vanity. The novel, itself, is a little dry, especially toward the beginning. There is a lot of dialogue and gossip, and it feels like it jumps from one scene to the next without any form of transition, using chapter breaks, instead, which occasionally becomes disorientating. It does improve as the story progresses, but it feels like half the book is introduction. When Dorian finally realizes that the picture is changing instead of him, things really start to pick up. It becomes easier to read, and I found myself wanting to know how everything was going to turn out. The character of Dorian is, to me, sympathetic. I feel like Lord Henry’s influence has poisoned him and, if he would only stop listening to the older man (which he plans to do several times), he would probably become a good person. I actually kept hoping for him to find a way to turn himself around, until he crossed a line there would be no coming back from.

To be honest, as much as I expected to, I did not love this book. It wasn’t horrid, but I feel like it could have been so much more. Maybe if Oscar Wilde could could come back and re-write it today without the court’s influence forcing him to alter it (Thanks to this novel, he went on trial because it made people believe him to be homosexual, and he was forced to remove certain elements from the book.), and in a slightly more modern voice, it could have been more. No, let me correct myself. It’s not that it needs to be in a more modern voice. A writer will be familiar with the rule: Show, don’t tell. A lot of The Picture of Dorian Gray does not follow this rule. He tells instead of showing, which makes it seem more detached. The parts where he does show instead of tell are wonderfully poetic and delightful (read the beginning of first chapter, and you’ll see what I mean), but the parts where it becomes all dialogue feels tedious and dry. If there were more showing and less telling, I certainly would have enjoyed it a great deal more.

Over all, it was an okay book. I wouldn’t recommend it to a non-reader or to someone who enjoys a light read, but someone who likes the classics and doesn’t mind some 19th Century London gossip in a novel will probably appreciate it, and may like it even more than I did. It has a lot of great material for paper writing, so if you are looking for a good book for a literature essay, The Picture of Dorain Gray would be an excellent choice. If you have been thinking about reading it, please don’t go purely by my somewhat less than glowing review when making your decision. Give it a try! The only way you’ll know if you like it is by reading it, yourself!

For more information on Oscar Wilde, check out the official website!

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Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne — ISBN 9781435115552 — ****

Genre: Science Fiction
Time to Read: Six Days

Short Summary:

Journey to the Center of the Earth is a book about three men who attempt the impossible. It is set in 1863, Germany. One day, the eccentric professor Otto Lindenbrock discovers a note in an old journal that once belonged to the celebrated scientist Arne Saknussemm. After translating the note, he learns that Saknusseumm once found a path that lead to the center of the Earth. Thrilled with his find, and with the prospect of discovering the way and documenting it for science, Herr Lindenbrock drags his more cautious nephew (and the narrator of the story) Axel to Iceland, where the extinct volcano that is to act as the gateway waits. There, they meet Hans, the stoic Icelander, who agrees to guide them to the volcano then assist them on their journey. Together, the three men face great adventure and peril as they journey to the center of the Earth, Professor Lindenbrock taking scientific notes and readings, Hans keeping the exuberant Otto out of harm, and Axel wondering all the while if they will ever return to Germany, where his beloved fiancée Graüben awaits his return.

First off, I have to admit I was a little unsure about my decision to read Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. I always loved the old 1959 movie as a child, and was vaguely familiar with the story and excited to read it as Jules Verne had written it, but I wasn’t confident in my ability to enjoy reading a book that was published in 1864. The language in older books isn’t always something I enjoy, and the fact that to original manuscript was written in French made me even less certain. It did take me a few chapters to grow accustomed to Jules Verne’s style of writing, but I truly did end up fully enjoying the book. The chapters are extremely short (average 3 pages in my copy, which is actually a compilation that also contains Around the World in 80 Days and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea), so it’s easy to read a chapter or two, then set it down. As someone who hates putting a book down mid-chapter, I fully appreciated this. The 1st person narration was conversational and easy to follow. I could easily picture Axel telling the story to me. The description is excellent, but not over done, and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the characters, especially Lindenbrock, who I came to think of as the Nutty Professor. There is a lot of old science included, which I can see as a potential turn-off to some, but it’s not so overly technical that it’s difficult to follow (though much of it has been disproved since 1864).

Over all, I enjoyed reading Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was very easy to get caught up in the story, especially since Axel is so easy to connect with as he tells his account of the events of their journey. I can understand how a person who is uninterested in geology, or who is so interested in modern science that they would be driven crazy by the defunct old science within the book, might not like it, but it is otherwise an excellent read. Maybe not as easy as some of the other books I have reviewed so far, but worth picking up.

[A warning to any students who might think they'll try watching the 1959 movie instead of reading the book for class: Don't bother trying. The differences between the movie and the book are huge. I could probably write a whole paper on them. The movie is great, if a little hokey, but it adds characters to the story and leaves out quite a bit and changes much of the rest. For example, there is no duck named Gertrude in the book. Don't let the fact that this is a classic intimidate you. Journey to the Center of the Earth really is a great read.]

Check out more Jules Verne books on his official publisher page!

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