Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey

In my search for books prior to vacation this year, I learned that Marie Antoinette was raised in Vienna.  Since we were visiting Vienna, I decided to try a historical fiction book about her childhood.

This book was not great literature (more like a beach read), but fun to read.  It followed Marie's silver-spoon childhood which comes to a screeching halt when her mother decides to marry her off.  She is betrothed to Louis XVI of France who will one day be king, which will help Austria's political prospects greatly.  However, Marie is scarcely more than a child, so the first third of the book is about all the training and primping and planning that goes into turning her into a proper princess. 

Once she arrives at Versailles, there is a lot to get used to.  There are political and social requirements and factions, there are limits to her free time and her privacy, and there is the delicate matter of getting to know her also-young husband, both privately as well as in the context of a friendship.  The latter proves easier than the former, though both stump her for a while.

The book, part one of a trilogy, ends with King Louis XV's death and Marie and her husband's ascent to the throne.  It will be fun to read the next book in the series when it is published.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

The next book I read on vacation was this one - The Historian.  It is a novel about a group of people searching for Dracula - not Bram Stoker's Dracula, but the purportedly real Dracula whose myth evolved into the vampire we are familiar with today.

The book was really fun to read - it alternated between the 1970's where a young girl discovers her widowed father's fascination with Dracula and the 1950's when he was actively searching for traces of Dracula across Europe.  A mix of history, adventure, and a little supernatural, the story held my attention.  The narration was shared by several of the characters and various articles, letters, and other "primary sources," which made some of what would have otherwise been dry historical content easier to digest.  Also keeping the book lively was the well-developed cast of characters, which included the daughter who finds her father's books, her father, father, his college professor, the professor's daughter, and many librarians, historians, monks, students, and others.

Being in Central Europe while I was reading this book was fun - there are scenes that take place in Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, and other places in the region we were in.  This was a good vacation read - not fluffy by any means, but one that you need to read a chunk of at a time to really appreciate.

QBVII by Leon Uris

I hadn't read anything by Uris in years, although Exodus (about the creation of Israel) is one of my all-time favorite books.  I picked this for our trip to Europe and it was a great read.

The book is about a trial - the trial of an author whose book about the Holocaust makes mention of a particular doctor's activities in a concentration camp; the doctor sues for libel. It's fast-paced, and unlike some courtroom dramas, it doesn't suffer from pages of detailed testimony.  Much like Uris' other books, a great deal of the book is dedicated to the back story of each of the main characters.  I did not find there to be a clear protagonist and antagonist: both the author and the doctor were characters I could root for. 

I particularly enjoyed reading this while in Central Europe because in Prague and Budapest, we saw a lot of Jewish history sites from before and during the Holocaust that enabled me to better connect with some of the themes in the book.  There were also several ethical dilemmas in the book (e.g., should the doctor have followed orders, should camp survivors have been asked to testify, etc...) that kept me thinking and engaged.

One note: this book was written in 1970 and in one particular way shows its age. The female characters are thin and predictable, reminiscent of Marjorie Morningstar or early Le Carre.  That aside, the book still resonated with me and kept me thinking long after it was over.

Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers

I'm not sure what Dave Eggers was thinking about for this book.  Many of his others are my favorites - but this was confusingly lacking in a compelling plot or set of characters.

The story follows Alan, once a rising executive for Schwin bicycles, now reduced to leading a group of young people to pitch a technology to the King of Saudi Arabia because he once - briefly - knew the King's nephew.  Alan faces many common middle-class issues: a demanding ex-wife, a daughter whose education is expensive, a career winding down before his financial responsibilities are complete.  He and his colleagues arrive in a beautifully designed but completely unoccupied housing and commerce development in Saudi Arabia, and are frustrated to find that schedules and plans are ignored, and that the sense of urgency they feel to "do business" is unmatched.  They are bored, waiting days to present.  Sadly, I was bored, waiting days for the book to pick up.

I've read reviews that this is a modern-day parable of globalization.  OK.  It didn't make any points to me that I hadn't thought about myself, and I don't think about globalization that much.  I am hopeful that Eggers' next book is more compelling, like his earlier work.

My New American Life by Francine Prose

I really enjoyed this book.  It was about a young Armenian woman named Lula who works as a housekeeper for a father and son outside of Manhattan.  The story follows her relationships with them and with her immigration lawyer.  Things get interesting when some fellow Armenians find her and insert themselves into her tidy life.

What was great about this book was the author's ability to detail different aspects of Lula's story.  In some cases, we learn about her first few months in the US in a bar with other immigrant friends.  In other cases, we peek into her domestic life.  We see her act as a caretaker for the teenage boy in the home she works in, as well as for his father.  And the scenes with the other Armenians are very rich - the contrast between her life and theirs very sharp while their similarities are also brought into focus.

I'd enjoy reading something else by Prose in the future.

South of Broad by Pat Conroy

Somewhere along the way I had put Pat Conroy in a lightweight beach-reading category, and it wasn't until I read a review of this most recent book of his that I realized he was a more serious author than that.

South of Broad was a good read.  It is about a group of friends who grow up together in Charleston, South Carolina, and alternates between their lives as teenagers in the late 1960's and then as adults twenty years later.  As children, the group forms around Leo, a bright kid who appreciates who his friends are, independent of race, class, and sexual orientation.  Years later, he remains the stable force who keeps the friends together.

The character development was definitely the most compelling piece of this book.  In addition to Leo, there were at least seven or eight main characters, all of whom I felt like I knew. In particular, I was impressed by Conroy's ability to develop the characters over 20 years.  I also liked how Conroy addressed several major social issues without that being the central theme of the book.

I would definitely choose something else by him in the future.

World Without End by Ken Follett

Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth - the epic story of several generations building a cathedral in the 12th century - is one of my all-time favorite books.  Recommended by my high school guidance counselor as a great example of someone who combined two lifelong interests, it was captivating from the first page.

When World Without End, the long-awaited sequel, came out a few years ago (and 20 years after Pillars) my dad sent me a copy the day it was released.  I was excited to read it but somehow couldn't get started - Web read it instead and then it sat on my bookshelf. 

Well once I finally opened the book I couldn't put it down.  It was great!!  It seemed to be written in a less sophisticated style than the original, compounded by the beginning of the book following several young children who are playing in the woods.  Another difference from Pillars was that in this book, two of the main characters were women, a point of view I enjoyed reading.  The story was about the town the cathedral had been built in, and how it had evolved 150 years later.  The relationships between the royalty, the Church, and the guild were really intriguing, and I also enjoyed the inclusion of real historical events like the Plague.  All of that coupled with a cast of good characters (as well as some great "bad guys") the book read quickly.

If you loved Pillars, (how could you not/?)  this is a good sequel.  I think the book would stand alone also, but you may as well read Pillars first.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morten

I read Distant Hours last summer and enjoyed it, so I decided to read another of Morton's novels.

This story starts with Nell, a woman who, as a child, was sent from London to Australia on a ship under mysterious circumstances.  She isn't told this until she is an adult, then she spends much of the rest of her life trying to learn what happened.  Meanwhile, many years later, her granddaughter Cassandra is trying to unravel the same mystery after inheriting a cottage in England upon Nell's death.

It was fun trying to follow the story in three different time periods: Nell's childhood, Nell's adulthood, and Cassandra's adulthood.  The story unfolds seemingly in order to the reader, but the characters in the story are figuring out what happened at different times. One of the other characters is an author of fairy tales, so those are woven in to the story, along with real life fairy-tale elements: wicked stepmothers, poor children sentenced to a life of arduous work, illegitimate children, etc. 

Juicy, indeed.

Voyager by Diana Galbadon

The third book in Galbadon's Outlander series, this book continues the story of Claire (of 20th century England, then the U.S.) and Jamie (of 18th century Scotland), and their love affair.  Like Dragonfly in Amber, this book lacked the initial delight factor of the first book, although there was enough other compelling plot elements to hold my attention. 

In this book, Claire travels back to find Jamie again.  He's living under an assumed name, and somewhat of a criminal.  However, they instantly click again, he finds out that she safely gave birth to and raised their child, and the soon and return to his family's homestead.  Shortly thereafter, however, they embark on a voyage to the Caribbean for a number of reasons, including jewels and a kidnapped nephew. The story of their trip was really fun to follow, as is their continuing love story. 

A few new characters are introduced and developed, and I can guess that I'll see them again in the next book. 

My Life on a Plate by India Knight

I really had a good time reading this book.  Poor India Knight - I probably won't be the only reader who thinks of this book as "as if Bridget Jones grew up, got married, and had kids" but maybe that's just because they're both British and I'm not.  I think of that as a compliment.

The story follows Clara, who is married, mother of two, has consistently been putting on weight as she gets older, and whose mother won't let her forget it.  As she deals with her marriage, her children, and her complex extended family, she survives by eating, drinking, and becoming reasonably impervious to humiliation. 

At some points I laughed out loud, some others I cringed, but each night I couldn't wait to get into bed to see what would happen next.  There is, in particular, an interview Clara conducts with a dancer that I don't think I'll ever forget. 

Thanks to Web's Aunt Christie for stuffing it into my purse last summer.

Fermat's Last Theorem by Amir D. Aczel

After reading Longitude, I decided on another book in the same genre: thin history of science books.  This book, subtitled "Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem" begins with Andrew Wiles' alleged proof of of Fermat's Last Theorem.  FLT is simple to understand but was, for nearly three centuries, impossible to prove. 

The theorem states that equations like a^2 + b^2 = c^2 can't be solved for exponents larger than 2.  Fermat, mathematician in the 1600's, stated this theorem with an innocent note indicating he had proven it but didn't have space in the margin of his notebook to write out the entire proof.  Since then, mathematicians had struggled to find a proof, and in 1993 Wiles was so sure that he had that he presented it at a large conference. 

Wiles' original proof of FLT was erroneous, so the book picks up the story there, ultimately unraveling the politics and characters involved in the lead-up to the proof as well as the correction that Wiles ultimately presented to successfully prove the theorem.  However, to appreciate the entire story, the author uses most of the book to provide a history of the math behind the story, starting long before Fermat, with the Greek mathematicians up through modern times.

I liked the book but I didn't love it.  I guess as a math person I craved better explanations of some of the mathematical concepts.  I wanted to understand the basic layout of the proof, and instead I got a narrative of the people involved as well as this history, but not enough math.  Some sections (like on non-Euclidean geometry) were at a level of detail I was looking for, but once he got into the elliptical math at the basis of the proof, Aczel's descriptions were not complete enough for my taste.

Longitude by Dava Sobel

This tidy little book sat on my bookshelf for years.  It's short - under 200 pages, and reads quickly. Its subtitle, "The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time" is accurate.

In the early 18th century, the problem of determining longitude at sea came to a head.  Latitude was easier to calculate based on the sun/stars, but the lack of being able to calculate longitude had resulted in many shipwrecks, costing sailors their lives and crowns their riches.  So the English Parliament put out a contest - whoever could figure out a way to calculate longitude accurately would win a cash prize large enough to sustain them for most of their life.

Most "contestants" aimed for a method that relied on celestial bodies, but one man (John Harrison) decided that clocks that kept accurate time at sea would be a more elegant way to solve the problem.  His lifework (and that of his son) became creating such a clock - not a simple feat in the 1700s.

This story - as depicted in the book - is fascinating.  There are the politics, the villains, and the science.  What's most amazing, however, is the intrigue - far more than you'd imagine in what seems like such a dry topic.  A good read.

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

Several years ago I read Otsuka's When the Emporer was Divine at my dad's recommendation.  That was a novel about a Japanese-American family taken to an internment camp during WWII. It was short, economical, well-written, and kind of a special book.

Buddha in the Attic has all of those characteristics too.  It's about a group of women who come over from Japan to be married to men they haven't met.  Some of their lives go as expected, others are disappointed, but all of them need to find ways to adjust to life in America.  What was most unique about this book was the voice - it was told in first-person plural, where the women (never completely enumerated and named) tell about different parts of their experiences in different chapters.  It made me wonder if Otsuka had created a set of individuals and then grouped their stories, or if she conceived the narrative this way.

Otsuka's books are like perfect tiny diamond stud earrings.  You can never have enough but they are quite beautiful.

Blame by Michele Huneven

This book came off the Chicago Tribune's booklist a few years back.  It was good - a reasonably complex set of themes hiding in an easy-to-read novel reminiscient of Jodi Picoult.

Most of the story is about Patsy, an alcoholic who kills two people in an accident while driving drunk.  The story follows her as she goes to prison, joins AA, and once released, rebuilds her life with an unlikely set of family and friends.  Most notably, she becomes friends with the husband and father of her victims, and also marries the unlikeliest of partners.  When additional details about the accident come out decades later, Patsy is confronted with the realities of what her life was like, and of what is has since become.

You could consider this a beach read or airport read - it is fast-paced and well-plotted.  However, that would probably underestimate the quality of the book and the profundity of its message. 

Recommended.

The Disappeared by Kim Echlin

This book was on last year's Globe and Mail annual book list and it has languished on mine since then.  Glad it finally bubbled up to the top.

The story is about a young woman who falls in love with a man who left Cambodia before the genocide in the late 1970's.  When the country is stable again, he is haunted by having left and returns.  She loses touch with him - for many years - then goes to Cambodia to find him.  It's a love story but also a tribute to the sad history of Cambodia.

Perhaps the best thing about this book was the style in which this was written.  It was like reading a novel-length poem - not one superfluous word, but nothing under-described either.  Both the passion of the love between the two main characters and the terrors endured by the Cambodian people were depicted crisply.  Some specifics of place and time were minimized in favor of creating a mood throughout the book.

Perhaps it was the war-torn Asian setting that reminded me a bit of The Lotus Eaters.  The writing in that book was much more straightforward, but the question of whether to love in the face of terror is futile was similar.

Recommended.