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The House at Riverton

3m — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:58:27 +0000

The House at Riverton is a strong debut novel by Kate Morton. Already a bestseller in the U.K., it is slated for release in the U.S. in April of 2008.

Grace Bradley, a 98 year old former servant of the Hartford family, recounts in a series of flashbacks the events surrounding the house and the family during World War I. Grace is ever the loyal servant (perhaps too loyal) to the family and especially to one of the mistresses of the house, Hannah, who is very close in age to Grace. In the flashbacks, Grace recounts how family secrets and the devastating effects of World War I led to the Hartford family’s demise.

In the author’s acknowledgments, she cites The Chatham School Affair, Remains of the Day, Gosford Park, and Upstairs Downstairs as having influenced her and her novel. I was familiar with all of those sources, so I did feel a bit like the book borrowed too much from these works to be truly spectacular. Still, I did enjoy it, and I would definitely read a second book by this author.

(2007 [2008 in the U.S.], 468 pp.)
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Dreamers of the Day

3m — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 12:47:34 +0000

Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell is a fictional story about Agnes, a middle-aged woman from Cleveland, who finally gets the courage and means to travel on her own. Her choice is Cairo, and while there she meets up with Winston Churchill, Gertrude Bell, and T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) while they are drawing the new map for the Middle East after World War I. Russell’s descriptions of Egypt are spectacular. I have been to Cairo myself, and some of the points made were still true from when I traveled there. I enjoyed the setting of the book and the historical accounts from this period tremendously. From this conference in Cairo, the boundaries for present day Iraq and other countries in the Middle East were set. The book has encouraged me to explore more about this era of history and re-view the movie Lawrence of Arabia.

However, there were several things I did not like about Russell’s writing style. Normally I don’t care if a book is written in first or third person. This book was written in first person with Agnes as the narrator. It just didn’t work for me, especially when she speaks directly to the reader. I felt it would have been better had the book been written in third person. In addition, I did not care for the ending at all and actually thought it was quite silly. I can’t describe more, though, without giving spoilers. I’ve read Russell’s books The Sparrow and the sequel The Children of God, and together they were my most thought-provoking books of 2006. I have not read A Thread of Grace, but I have heard good things about it and still plan on reading it. I’m sad to say, however, that I was disappointed in Dreamers of the Day. It could have been an excellent book if it had taken a different path. I’m still rating it a 3.5, though, because the descriptions of Cairo made me miss it tremendously, and because it did make me interested in the history of how the present Middle East was formed.

2008, 251 pp.
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I snagged a copy!

3m — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:45:08 +0000

I’m so excited! I just snagged an ARC (advance reader’s copy) courtesy of LibraryThing and Random House. This was the first time I tried getting an early review book, and though I didn’t get any from the initial batch of choices for November, I did receive my choice from the ‘bonus batch’ of books by Random House.

I’m so happy with the book I received. It is Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell. Last year I read two of Ms. Russell’s books, The Sparrow and its sequel Children of God. These were the most thought-provoking books I read in 2006, and if you’ve ever looked at my ’2006 Books’ tab, you’ll see I had made a note of that. Although this book will be very different from those two (which were science fiction), I already know I like Ms. Russell’s writing style; and, the setting is in Cairo, Egypt – - a place I have actually been and loved. I’m really looking forward to reading and reviewing this book.