4. The Boleyn Inheritance, Phillipa Gregory
I read The Other Boleyn Girl a while back; I think I borrowed it from Mads sometime during my first year of college. It was a good read – I enjoyed the historical context, the intrigue and scandal. I remember thinking that it had too many creepy heavily-hinting-at-sex scenes, although they didn’t seem gratuitous (most of the time). I expected The Boleyn Inheritance to be much along the same lines.
For the most part, Inheritance reads in the same way as Girl. It is set in the same court, it has a few of the same central characters, the style and layout of the story are roughly the same. However, I found the book to be much more one-dimensional. I wasn’t particularly impressed by any of the characters this time around and found it difficult to sympathize with them at all. This book seemed to focus on one central event, so maybe I was missing a sense of complexity.
It was entertaining still. And to its credit, there were fewer of those creepy bits.
5. The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Anne Rice writing as A. N. Roquelaure
Mads and I bought a couple of scandalous books during one of our literature outings. I don’t know if we were on some sort of sugar high or what… I finally got around to reading this book, and I’ll admit that I had sporadic fits of immature giggles throughout the reading. The style is basic Anne Rice, so if you liked the writing in any of her Vampire books, this one will ready rather easily. The content is… interesting to say the least. I’ll say that some of the scenes were a little disturbing…
I really don’t know what to say about this one. Approach with caution.
6. Real Simple: Meals Made Easy, Editors of Real Simple Magazine
I recently purchased this cookbook because the other ones that I have seem way too intense for day-to-day meals. The recipes are straightforward and very simple; most of them are shortcut versions of old standards (e.g. lasagna, baked beans, beef stew). I don’t ever follow recipes to the letter, so the concise instructions and time estimates made it easy to experiment with different additions. Tips for modifying the recipes are provided in the margins too.
A good addition to the repertoire.
7. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I’m glad that I finally read this book. The story chronicles the many members of the Buendia family, illustrating each life story in great detail. When I first took note of the format of the book, I was worried that keeping track of each character would be difficult and confusing (especially since many of them share the same name), but it was really beautifully written and easy to follow. Although my initial impression was that it would be straight fiction, lots of fantastical elements are thrown in. The story becomes one not only of growth and struggle in the family, but also about the loss of magic in the modern era.
All in all, a wonderful read. Everyone should read this book at least once. When I get more solid in Spanish, I’m going to try to find a Spanish copy too.
8. The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
An interesting twist on the classic Dracula vampire story. The tale was told with heavy historical context, which I always appreciate. Unfortunately, I thought that one of the final climactic scenes was pretty anti-climactic.
Now I’m working on a Charles de Lint novel that I’ve had in my possession, unread, for at least five or six years now.
