REVIEW: Affinity by Sarah Waters

My Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Margaret Prior is a proper lady in 1870's Victorian England. After her Pa dies, she becomes a "Lady Visitor" at Millbank women's prison to help deal with her grief. And while visiting the various inmates there, becomes quite taken with a spiritualist named Selina Dawes, whom she comes to feel was wrongly imprisoned.

The atmosphere was very dark and gothic, and Ms Waters has a great talent for writing that really pulls you into that place. While the first 50-60% of the story was rather slow and plodding, the next half, once Selina began to pull Margaret in, began to pick up the pace. Unlike one of my other friends who reviewed this book, I didn't see this ending coming and was quite surprised and distraught by how things turned out.

If you like dark tales of Victorian England, then you'll probably like this, even the slower beginning which help to build a very strong atmosphere. While I didn't like it as much as some of Waters other novels like Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet, I still found it quite worth the read.

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REVIEW: In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's 1918 and the world is on the brink of collapse. People are dying from the Spanish Flu or being shipped overseas to die in the war over there. The Spiritualism movement is in full swing in the US and 16 year old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort. She never believed in ghosts herself, but when her childhood sweetheart, who had went off to war, begins to appear to her, she starts to question her previous beliefs. But what does he really want, and how is she supposed to help?

This is the second book I've ready by Cat Winters, the other being The Cure for Dreaming which I also enjoyed very much. She has such an evocative style of writing that really pulls you in and makes you feel as if you're right there living everything right alongside Mary Shelley. The depictions of the Spanish Influenza had so many parallels to our recent COVID-19 virus, but it also made me realize that the Spanish Flu was soooo much worse! I guess since medicine wasn't as advanced then, it would make sense that more people died. I really enjoy it when a book not only tells a very interesting story, but also teaches me a thing or two!

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REVIEW: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's 1860s London and life is hard in the Borough. So when a con man who goes by the moniker of Gentleman proposes a scheme to swindle a rich heiress out of her fortune, young thief Susan Tinder is happy to oblige, especially if it means it'll help her family. But all is not as it seems and inevitably things don't go as intended. I can't say too much without spoilers, but suffice to say, there were many twists and turns, and surprising plot twists, that kept me deeply engrossed in this engaging story.

This is the second book I read by Sarah Waters, the first being Tipping the Velvet and I enjoyed this one just as much as the first. The author really kept me on my toes with all her surprises and I appreciate that even when things weren't spelled out fully, and the reader was left to intuit certain things, it was eventually all spelled out in the end.. for those who may not have been paying close attention. A fantastic read, highly recommended!

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REVIEW: The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

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My Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

"How did you get to be the woman you are today?"

When Addie Baum's 22-year-old granddaughter, Ava, asks her grandmother this very question, she is regaled with the wonderful narrative of Addie's life, reliving every vivid moment from the time she was 15, a young Jewish girl growing up in Boston during the early 20th century. Addie Baum, now 85, was a smart and spunky young spitfire, with progressive ideas for the time she was living in. We get to see the world through her eyes, and to experience many world changing events going on around her, from child labor and women's suffrage to fighting with her parents to allow her to remain in school. She's loved, she's lost, but she was always been her own person. She's a strong likeable character with a knack for telling a story, which I suppose is really the author's knack, but the way it was written, you never felt like she was reciting, but definitely reliving.

This was such an interesting and engaging read, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book since it's not a genre I normally read. Historical fiction, yes, although there's usually an element of fantasy or steampunk to my usual historical reads. This book, while still fiction, was simply a well-written piece of fiction told in an autobiographical memoir style.

Since it took place in Boston, and setting was such an important element to this story, I knew I had to read it. I've been in California five years now, but I often long for home and there's lots of things I miss about New England, and Boston in particular. So much of this story elicited strong feelings of place within me. I could truly picture myself walking along the streets of the North End, small little tenements lining each side, or down the cafe-lined streets of Hanover Street. The author certainly has a knack for emoting with a place, and I loved experiencing it through this novel.

I don't know a lot about Jewish families and traditions, having only experienced them from the outside, but so much of the Jewish family dynamics reminded me of my own Italian roots, from which I'm descended on my mother's side. I truly felt like I took a very entertaining, and yes educational, trip through history after reading this book, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

REVIEW: ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes, Year 1 by Susan Helene Gottfried

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My Rating: 6 out of 10 stars

This collection of short stories introduces the reader to the world of Trevor Wolff and Mitchell Voss, and their rock band ShapeShifter. They were originally published at the online blog of author Susan Helen Gottfried, The Meet & Greet at West of Mars, so many of the visitors to that site—fondly referred to as groupies—might already be familiar with them. Since I never really liked reading online, I wasn't much of a groupie myself, so I was happy to see this collection come out so I could find out what all the fuss was about. ;)

Trevor's the kind of character you love to hate... he's rude and obnoxious, but underneath it all, has a heart of gold. There's not a whole lot of substance to most of these stories, they're just sort of the day-to-day of these characters, an introduction in preparation for the book she later published, Trevor's Song. That's not to say that Trevor, Mitchell, and the gang don't have fun, or manage to get themselves into some funny or sticky situations. For that they certainly do, but it's hard to critique this book like a book when there wasn't really a plot or anything. So just take it for what it is... and if you like the characters enough to want to follow along and see what happens from here, pick up the next 2 years of Demo Tapes, along with Trevor's Song. Actually they're all being offered FREE (in digital or ebook format) at Smashwords until the end of July. Refer to each individual book page for the code to add to your cart. I grabbed them myself and since this was a fairly quick read, plan to catch up more on Trevor and the gang over the course of the next year. :)

PS - Up until I read this book, I was convinced Trevor was a werewolf. I mean, who wouldn't with the surname of Wolff and band name of ShapeShifter, right? But this book set me straight and I was a wee bit disappointed to discover the characters were just regular joes like you and me.

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#23 Dancing Above the Waves by Susan Walerstein

My Rating: 5 out of 10 stars

Jack McCalister is a wealthy businessman living his life between two homes—a sprawling estate on the fictional Cape Cod island of Clary's Cove and a grand mansion in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston. One foggy morning, while rushing to make the ferry from the island back to Boston, he accidentally hits a teenage girl who had run into the street right in front of his car. Scared and not knowing what to do, he flees the scene without stopping and doesn't report the accident to anyone, hoping no one saw what he did.

But someone else did see what happened... and they plan to use the knowledge to get what they want out of Jack...

This book was alright, though didn't really have me on the edge of my seat. Billed as a suspense thriller, it contained a little too much romance and drama for my liking which made the genre categorization seem a bit off; my idea of suspense thrillers being more Koontz-like. I feel this book read more like a general fiction title actually.

I immediately picked up on was the fact that this a first work for the author. I found the descriptions a bit over done and the storytelling a bit formulaic. The overly descriptive parts wouldn't have bothered me as much if there weren't so many of them in parts which had nothing to do with the story—who really cares how many cups of oil Erica uses in her salad?—or would go off into another time and place right in the middle of the current time line which sometimes made my eyes glaze over. However, this obviously didn't bother other readers as much as it did me, as evidenced by its several good reviews at Amazon.

As a matter of fact, there were times where the extra descriptions served the author well. A born and bred Boston girl myself (I live in the suburbs now), I immediately recognized the locations and landmarks, and even the local customs and mannerisms of the people, in the writing. Some things about New England are very distinctive, and in this regard, the extra detail employed here worked well to enhance the entire sense of place in the story, and give it that unique New England feel.

So despite my initial reservations, I decided to dig in my heels and continue reading, and I found things picked up after the first forty or so pages as the story began to sufficiently hold my interest. I can't say this was one of my favorite reads, and it was a bit outside my usual genre, but in the end it turned out to be a vaguely satisfying read nonetheless.

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Tipping the Velvet (the movie)

My Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

I know I don't usually do movie reviews, but the other night I saw the BBC made-for-TV movie of Tipping the Velvet, a book I previously read and reviewed by Sarah Waters, so I wanted to talk about it here. I thought it was really good, though I still think the book was slightly better. (Isn't that always the case? LOL)

At nearly 3 hours, it was fairly thorough and consistent with the book, though some parts of Nan's life, like when she was working the streets and living with Grace and Mrs. Milne, was made a wee bit shorter as if to gloss it over a bit. You never really got the impression about how close Grace had grown to her, and they left out the part where she returned a few days after she moved in with Diana to get her outfits and let the Milne's know she wasn't returning. Though they did sort of allude to it because DH turned to me and said, "How'd she get her outfits back?" Didn't she leave them all at the Milne's?" So I explained that in the book, she did return a few days later to pick up her stuff and let them know she was leaving. They also changed the circumstances surrounding Nan's initial meeting with Florence, before she hooked up with Diana, though that didn't really affect the movie all that much.

I'm glad this was made in Britain as opposed to the U.S. because Americans are way too hung up on sexuality and I'm sure they would've definitely complained about the sex scenes. Personally, our society's hangups over sexuality are a huge pet peeve of mine so it was refreshing to see a movie not shirk away from the subject of girl-on-girl love.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie, and was glad that I supplemented my reading of the book by seeing it as well. :)

#9 Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

My Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

From the publisher: This delicious, steamy debut novel chronicles the adventures of Nan King, who begins life as an oyster-girl in the provincial seaside town of Whitstable and whose fortunes are forever changed when she falls in love with a cross-dressing music-hall singer named Miss Kitty Butler. When Kitty is called up to London for an engagement on "Grease-Paint Avenue", Nan follows as her dresser and secret lover, and soon after, dons trousers and joins the act. In time, Kitty breaks her heart, and Nan assumes the guise of a butch roué to commence her own thrilling and varied sexual education—a sort of Moll Flanders in drag—finally finding friendship and true love in the most unexpected places.

At 472 pages, this book took me a bit longer to read than I'd anticipated. I can't say I didn't enjoy it however. Only time will tell if it "stays with me" the way many other great books do. I do enjoy this particular time period, late 19th Century, the Victorian era. Back in those times, for a woman to dress as a man, in "trousers" was quite against the accepted norms. I suspect that could be part of the reason that this book appealed to me in the first place, despite being outside of my usual genre. Because it tells the story of a girl who went against society's norms in every possible way. Hmm, kind of reminds me of someone else I know... *whistle*

Nan was a lesbian at a time when society wasn't sure how to handle such "atrocities". Being bisexual myself, I'm always intrigued reading about lesbian girls because they are so very different from bisexuals and travel in completely different social circles. Even back then, it seemed that lesbians usually only hung around with their own kind. Similar to how it's all depicted on the Showtime TV series The L Word, we don't really have these social groups intermingling. Lesbians have lesbian parties and 95% of the guests are lesbians; it's as if they're their own clique. Whereas if you're a woman who prefers both men and women equally for her sexual partners, but perhaps your established living arrangements or life partner happens to be male, then you're kind of outside the lesbian social circle. So that's a whole other aspect of this book that added to it's appeal for me. I don't think I'd read a contemporary lesbian romance novel and enjoy it nearly as much. Yet I truly enjoyed this one because of all the other stuff going on, the time period in which it took place, and simply because the author is a very good writer, and I truly felt I was able to "see" England through the eyes of a young lesbian woman in Victorian England. And that was quite a treat for the senses!

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#5 The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory

My Rating: 10 out of 10 stars

It's 1558, and Elizabeth, daughter to King Henry VIII and 2nd wife Anne Boleyn, has just been crowned Queen of England. After the brief but strict reign of her Catholic half-sister Mary, what is England to expect from the Protestant Princess who wants to abolish the Catholic ways? In a country full of turmoil, Sir Robert Dudley, longtime friend of Elizabeth since their days growing up at court together, seeks to better his position and maneuver himself into a position of power at Elizabeth's side.

But what of his wife: the forgotten Amy Dudley who doesn't come to court but instead remains back home in the country, forever waiting for her husband to put aside his ambitions and return home to her, for the love of a good woman. Unfortunately, the only love Dudley's seeking is the Queen's. But to what lengths will he go to achieve his means?

This was another great read in the Tudor series! Though the work itself is considered fiction, the author bases the stories themselves on fact. Of course, we cannot truly know everything that went through the minds of Elizabeth, Robert, William Cecil, and the others as not as much was recorded in the way of diaries and actual day-to-day events. But despite that, Ms. Gregory is able to take the facts from numerous sources and build a very real feeling story that draws you right in and makes you feel as if you were right there in the Renaissance period, experiencing everything firsthand along with the rest of the court. It's as if she's reconstructed history right before your very eyes!

I was never much for History in school; it was always one of my worst subjects and I could never garner enough interest to retain the facts that were constantly drilled into my head. However, the way these stories are composed by Ms. Gregory, I enjoy them so much that I actually find myself easily retaining all the information I so easily forgot before, even long after I finished the book. My high school history professor would be so proud! LOL

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#55 The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh

My Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

Rilke is a down-on-his-luck auctioneer in Glasgow, Scotland who comes into a estate job that has seriously piqued his interest. In the converted attic of the McKindless residence, hidden among a huge collection of rare and hard-to-find first edition pornography, he finds some extremely disturbing photographs.... Proving that McKindless was more than just a reader, but an actual participant in some very nasty stuff!

I'm glad I found the time to read this. Thank you for allowing me hang on to it longer than usual. I'm not much of a "true crime" reader usually, but the subject matter of this particular book (pornography and other sexual deviations) greatly interested me. ;-) Apparently, this was a first novel from this Scottish author, Louise Welsh, and though I had a slightly difficult time with some of the colloquialisms, it wasn't anything that took away from the story, and I was usually able to figure out what the author was referring to within a page or two max. An exciting read!

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#47 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

My Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

Though not my usual genre, this was a good read nonetheless. The story is told from the first-person viewpoint of Susie Salmon, a murdered 14 year old girl who died at the hands of a neighbor whom nobody suspects. Nobody that is, except her father who's got a nagging feeling that George Harvey is behind Susy's disappearance.

So Susie's looking down at her family and friends from heaven, watching her death split her family apart, remembering events that happened in the past, and trying as hard as she can (even though she can't affect things on earth) to point her family and the police in the right direction of her murderer. An old classmate Ruth, and former boyfriend Ray, become close, and Ruth is somewhat of a medium, able to communicate with spirits, a skill she doesn't realize she possesses until Susie brushes past her and actually touches her as her soul transcends to heaven. Ruth becomes important later in the story too with some of the things she can do.

Though I don't believe in the Christian concept of heaven, I do believe in a similar place where our souls go to await reincarnation. So I could still relate to this story just as easily as anyone else, especially since they didn't use Christian divinity concepts. As a matter of fact, Susy's heaven seemed much more like the Pagan Summerlands than what I've seen heaven portrayed as.

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#13 The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory

My Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

Wow, another great book by Philippa Gregory! I thought this was just about as good as The Other Boleyn Girl. Once I finished it, I immediately went and added the sequel, The Virgin’s Lover, to my wish list as I’m really looking forward to the story of Elizabeth. Both her and Robert Dudley were my favorite characters in this book, and they’re the primary characters in the next book. :)

Just like in The Other Boleyn girl, Gregory takes historical fact and weaves a tale around it. There’s a few main characters in this book, with Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon, being the main character of historical significance. She’s sometimes remembered as “Bloody Mary” because of all the supposed heretics she had burned at the stake.

This story is told from the point of view of Hannah the Fool, the daughter of a Jewish bookseller who escaped persecution with her father from Spain to England after her mother was burned as a heretic. I believe Hannah’s character is completely fictional, but her story is interesting nonetheless. She’s got the gift of a Seer, and as the Queen’s Fool, she dresses in breeches, and doesn’t really have to mind what she says as most women would… she’s “a fool” after all.

Her loyalties are continually tested as she’s a trusted companion to Queen Mary, as well as her half-sister, the Princess Elizabeth, and Robert Dudley, both of whom are later imprisoned and charged with treason in a plot to strip Queen Mary from the throne. Hannah moves among these groups and they all trust her; many times she doesn’t even realize the plots she’s actually involved in as she’s asked to bring some cryptic message from one to another. She tries to speak only the truth and often the Sight compels her to do so. Had the Queen listened to Hannah before agreeing to marry Prince Philip of Spain, she may have been saved a lot of heartache, and what eventually became her undoing.

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#6 The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman

My Rating: 5 out of 10 stars

This book wasn't really my cup of tea. It was too abstract and didn't have enough action for my liking. However, I don't think that's a reflection on the book itself, it's simply not the genre I usually like to read from.

The author writes well; her words flow together nicely, and she's able to easily take something ordinary, such as a lightning storm or an orange orchard, or even a dead mole or a pile of flies, and turn it into something extraordinarily beautiful, or sad and repulsive. It was this vivid use of imagery in her words that kept me reading—that and the fact it's a fairly short book at only 211 pages—when I might otherwise have put it aside and went on to something else.

Why did I decide to read this book in the first place then you might wonder. Well, because I've heard this author's name quite a bit and wanted to try out one of her books for myself. I almost hate to give it a numeric rating here though since my rating will be mostly subjective based on how I personally liked the story in relation to the other books I've read. If I look at it objectively though, I'd have to give it kudos for the quality of writing, the wonderful use of imagery, and the fact that underneath it all, there was a poignant and touching story there.

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#76 Chocolat by Joanne Harris

My Rating: 8 out of 10 stars
A great read, I really enjoyed it. Character-wise, Reynaud stands for everything I dislike about the Catholic religion and I really hated his character in this story: a true villian, bigot, and zealot. I could never wrap my mind around some of the Catholic ideals and concepts—Lent and abstinence, original sin, and the like. Reynaud likes to take the words of the Bible and warp them to his own twisted means.

Vianne is exactly the opposite of Reynaud and stands for everything I believe in and all that is right with the world; her outlook on life closely mirroring my own—except for the parts about fleeing from place to place to escape The Black Man. She was a good mother and a wonderful woman, and I was happy to see the impact she had on many of the people of Lansquenet, giving them strength and courage, and a new love for life.

The premise of the story, a chocolate boutique opened by Vianne in a strictly Catholic village, allows the characters, both major and minor, to examine their beliefs as the priest Reynaud speaks out against the debauchery of the chocolatier. Joanne Harris, the author, is very good at describing things in the best frame of reference, the chocolates, the flowers of springtime, the images brought to mind while reading this book were both beautiful and mouth-watering. And seeing as how it’s just past Halloween, and a recent vacation to Key West from which I just returned last week, I happened to find all kinds of chocolate in the house which we usually don’t have. I think this book may have caused me to gain a few pounds because with all the reading about chocolate, goodness knows I had to indulge. Heh, at least all the Halloween chocolate is almost gone now… though I miss the Key West fudge and Lindt chocolates. LOL

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#58 The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Date Started: Monday, August 29, 2005
Date Finished: Wednesday, August 31, 2005
My BookCrossing Rating: 7 out of 10 stars
Comments:
I'm not really sure how I felt about this book compared to the Broadway musical and the Andrew Lloyd-Webber movie. Of course, the primary thing missing is the MUSIC... which I so love. It really makes the whole thing for me. Given that, the book was obviously a translation as the English is not necessarily written in a way that a native speaker would say or write it. Also, it was written back in 1911 so the language spoken in France at that time was also more proper than that which is spoken today. Given that, I can't say that it was difficult to read, just not as smooth as today's native English writers.

About the story itself, as was mentioned in the foreword, some liberties were taken with the musical and the movie, which in my opinion actually made it a bit better in some respects. But the book also went into more depth on the history and architecture of the Paris Opera House itself which you don't really get from the musical or the movie. All in all, I'd say they tend to complement each other fairly well, and I appreciate reading the book after having seen the Broadway musical twice, and I also have the extended DVD edition of the Lloyd-Webber movie in my personal DVD collection.

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#53 The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Date Started: Friday, August 5, 2005
Date Finished: Saturday, August 13, 2005
My BookCrossing Rating: 10 stars
Comments:
Going in, I was unsure whether or not I'd like this book since I haven't really read much from the historical fiction genre. However, it blew me away! And I learned a great deal about Tudor England, Henry VIII, and Queen Anne Boleyn in the process.

This book is based on historical fact. At the back of the book is a Q & A with the author and she claims that the only fabricated parts are the feelings and thoughts of the individuals in the story. As she says, and I quote, "The history is the skeleton and the fiction is the breath."

Were this not a bookring book, I'd hang on to it and share it with as many people as possible. I may end up seeking out another copy of it anyway so I can do just that. :)

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REVIEW: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Date Started: Sunday, April 17, 2005

Date Finished: Friday, April 22, 2005

My BookCrossing Rating: 10 out of 10 stars

Comments:
Wow, this was a fantastic book! I went into it not knowing what to expect. Despite the good reviews I’d heard about it, I thought it would have a strong pro-Christian slant, and thus wouldn’t be the right book for me. However, the premise of the story strongly disputed the entire basis of modern Christianity—which meshed quite nicely with my own way of thinking. As a Goddess worshiper, I already knew and understood a lot of the stuff about the Goddess that was discussed, and the stuff that was newer to me was how it tied in to Christianity. Most likely, I was coming from the opposite side of the coin as so many other readers, to whom the Goddess-aspect is the newer concept rather than the more familiar. Nevertheless, I can honestly say that even from the standpoint of a practicing Pagan and Wiccan, the story held my interest right up until the very end, and I had no qualms with the way the author handled the feminine divinity at all.

The entire book, with the exception of the epilogue, takes place within the course of a single day. Thinking back on that, I found it amazing that I didn’t find the story to lag in any way, and that the author could spread an entire 24 hour period over 454 pages. Unlike a previous reviewer who claimed that the short chapters made it harder to read, I found just the opposite to be the case. I was continually saying to myself, “I can get in just one more short chapter before bed.” Which in turn made it impossible to put down. :) And the flashbacks to past memories… I didn’t find too excessive at all. Perhaps that opinion is tempered somewhat by the book I read right before this one, Minion by L. A. Banks, in which the excessive rambling of the characters’ long thought processes was driving me crazy. But I digress…

I told my partner that he simply MUST read this book, so I’ve put it on reserve at our local library for him. He usually doesn’t read all that much, but with all the hype surrounding this book because of the film and all, and the fact that I’m sure the book was better than the movie as is usually the case, I’m hoping I can get him to read it within the allotted time once it’s available to us. It’s the kind of book I want everyone I know to read. If they haven’t already… I’m interested in hearing what some of my other Pagan friends have to say about it too, particularly with regards to the Goddess aspect.

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