This classic romance novel tells the true story of the love affair that changed history—that of Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the ancestors of most of the British royal family. Set in the vibrant 14th century of Chaucer and the Black Death, the story features knights fighting in battle, serfs struggling in poverty, and the magnificent Plantagenets—Edward III, the Black Prince, and Richard II—who ruled despotically over a court rotten with intrigue. Within this era of danger and romance, John of Gaunt, the king’s son, falls passionately in love with the already married Katherine. Their well-documented affair and love persist through decades of war, adultery, murder, loneliness, and redemption. This epic novel of conflict, cruelty, and untamable love has become a classic since its first publication in 1954.

There’s much to like about this book; the plot is complex, yet easy to follow. And it’s obvious that there was a lot of research, though some things have been found to be wrong. But that can be overlooked because of how interesting the main story is.

What I couldn’t overlook was how Katherine was portrayed. She’s too perfect in some areas; the most beautiful woman, almost spiritual in her continence, she awes everyone she meets. Yet she’s a lousy mother, as her attraction to John of Gaunt overwhelms everything; her marriage to someone else, her children by him, and any thought as to how her actions might affect anyone else.

It’s an interesting book, but ultimately a flawed one.




( TBR Book Links 1-65 )

66. Katherine by Anya Seton









Red or Green Cover - Katherine by Anya Seton




DECEMBER- That’s History. Read a historical fiction book or a book about a true historical event.

Katherine by Anya Seton

With the year ending, it's time to re-up!



girlxoxo

A breathtaking thriller which weaves history and religion with action, adventure and apocalypse…

Luke Hayward is adrift. Blacklisted out of academia, he is in no position to refuse when a client asks for his expert help in recovering some lost Isaac Newton papers.

But a chance discovery in a dusty attic plunges Luke into a race to uncover the truth behind some seemingly random scribblings - a race which pits Luke against a fundamentalist madman with dangerously powerful friends.

Luke discovers connections between Oxford, London and the Old City of Jerusalem in a breathless chase to uncover a secret hidden in the eccentric ramblings of a mathematical genius; a secret that, in the wrong hands, could be used to spark the holy war to end all holy wars…

I’ve enjoyed several of Adams’ books and this was no exception. Luke’s attempt to find the truth is a convoluted one, twists and turns at every, well, turn. It actually took me a bit to get the characters straight, but that didn’t subtract from my enjoyment. Luke, especially, was likable. As was Rachel, the woman who would join him in his quest to stop the cabal of religious madmen. Those madmen would be the part of the story I would find hard to swallow.

Maybe that’s the blindness that overcomes people who believe in something, whatever the reality is. The characters are supposed to be learned men, steeped in, not just the bible, but the history of what came to be known as the Holy Land. Problem is, most of the stories that their reasons are based on, archaeologists have debunked. It was hard to see the men as, not just misguided, but deliberately blind. Unfortunately, it’s pretty plain, taking our own recent history, that people like this do exist.


MADE IT TO THE TOP OF MOUNT KILIMANJARO!


( TBR Book Links 1-55 )

56. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
57. The Haunting of Hill House (Stephen King Horror Library) by Shirley Jackson
58. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
59. Candlelight by Phil Rickman
60. Newton's Fire by Will Adams







NOVEMBER- IN THE LIBRARY WITH THE CANDLESTICK: Read a mystery- cozy, detective, spies, true crime, whodunnit, or the like.

Newton’s Fire by Will Adams

Miner's son David Powlett-Jones returns from the carnage of the Western Front in 1918, shell-shocked and bitterly hardened by the violence of war. He begins life again as a master at a remote Devon school, controlling the destiny of boys barely his junior. As the years pass David becomes a teacher of rare talent, begins to find peace, and is able to adjust to the changes which are overwhelming society. But soon he will have to face up to the prospect of another terrible war.

Delderfield takes the reader on a serene yet deeply moving journey through the life of David Powlett-Jones, a soldier just home from the trenches of the Western Front. More therapy than calling, he takes a position at Bamfylde School in Devon. There, he finds solace and a sense of healing.

There is love and loss, triumphs and disappointments, but through it all he leads his students through their passage from boyhood to young adulthood. Children, both his own and the hundreds put in his care, find an excellent pilot to steer them through life.

Like all Delderfield’s writing, the book is also a tale of England, this time of the years between the two World Wars. Though basically a story of David Powlett-Jones, it’s also the story of the country in which he resides.




( TBR Book Links 1-45 )

46. Harvest Home by Tom Tryon
47. The Cider House Rules by John Irving
48. The Clover Girls by Viola Shipman
49. The Hiding Place by C. J. Tudor
50. To Serve Them All My Days by R.F. Delderfield









SEPTEMBER - BACK TO SCHOOL: Read a book with a school setting, featuring a student or educator OR read a book to educate yourself on a topic you’re interested in learning more about.

To Serve Them All My Days by R.F. Delderfield

Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, is an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published in 1847. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians.
The idea for the poem came from Longfellow's friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Longfellow used dactylic hexameter, imitated from Greek and Latin classics, though the choice was criticized. It was published in 1847 and became Longfellow's most famous work in his lifetime. It remains one of his most popular and enduring works.
The poem had a powerful effect in defining both Acadian history and identity in the nineteenth and twentieth century.

I don’t remember exactly the first time I read this poem; maybe sometime in grade school. What I do remember is that I loved it, and that it made a huge impression on me. The forced expulsion, the hope of finding a lost love, and then, finally, the tragedy at her journey’s end.

The poem is very much a love poem, no matter its end. Evangeline’s undying love for Gabriel, and, I hope, his for her, pulls the reader through time and along her search. I would have loved for the poem to have a different ending, but I wonder if its impact would have been the same if it had.

Over the years I’ve read the poem several times. Sometimes a year will go by, sometimes several. But its effect on me has never lessened; I doubt it ever will. And I’m sure, a year from now, or several, I’ll be reading it again.




( TBR Book Links 1-35 )

36. City of the Lost by Will Adams
37. The Summer Queen: A Medieval Tale of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France by Elizabeth Chadwick
38. Last Train from Perdition (I Travel by Night #2) by Robert R. McCammon
39. Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow









Free - Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow




JULY- Short But Fabulous. Read a novella, comic, graphic novel, manga, or short book of poetry.

Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Male and female wolves have the unique ability to form long-lasting, deeply emotional bonds. This is the astonishing true story of two such wolves.

Wolf 21 and Wolf 42 were attracted to each other the moment they met in Yellowstone Park--but Wolf 42's jealous sister hindered their relationship. After an explosive insurrection within the pack, the two wolves came together at last as alpha male and alpha female of the Druids, which, under their benevolent leadership, became the most successful wolf pack in Yellowstone history. Renowned wolf expert and Yellowstone's first-ever wolf interpreter Rick McIntyre recounts their fascinating lives with compassion and a keen eye for detail, drawing on his more than twenty-five years of experience observing Yellowstone wolves in the wild.

The story of Wolf 42 and Wolf 21 is a remarkable work of science writing, offering unparalleled insight into wolf behavior and Yellowstone's famed wolf reintroduction project. It's also a heart-wrenching love story with a cathartic ending, providing further evidence that the lives of wolves are as eventful--and important--as our own.

I know that they give the wolves numbers, rather than names, so that those studying them won’t get too attached to them. But there was no way that I couldn’t have gotten attached to Wolf 42 and Wolf 21, especially Wolf 21. He was such an exceptional wolf, an exceptional leader, and his story is one that can’t help but inspire. Wolf 21 would grow to be much like his step-father, Wolf 8, and would lead in much the same way.

It’s hard not to call his relationship with Wolf 42 as a love story, but they lived most of their lives together and Wolf 21 would not long outlast Wolf 42; he seemed lost without her.

I love their story; anyone who loves wolves can’t help but love their story.





( TBR Book Links 1-30 )
31. Echoes of Home: A Ghost Story by M.L. Rayner
32. The Picture of Dorian Gray (Talking Classics) by Oscar Wilde, Martin Shaw (Reader)
33. The Reign of Wolf 21: The Saga of Yellowstone’s Legendary Druid Pack (The Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone #2) by Rick McIntyre, Marc Bekoff







2021 MONTHLY MOTIF READING CHALLENGE by girlxoxo




JUNE- The Great Outdoors. Read a book featuring a garden, nature, country, or harvest setting or plot.

The Reign of Wolf 21: The Saga of Yellowstone’s Legendary Druid Pack (The Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone #2) by Rick McIntyre, Marc Bekoff

In the summer of 1766, Sally Pershore goes to visit her Aunt Persis in the country. Aunt Persis has recently moved, and Sally soon sees that things are not going woo in the new home. Three orphan boys, triplets, have been parceled out among the neighbors as was the custom of those days, and Any Persis has taken one.
But the boy, Josset Ormond, does not wish to stay with her; his heart is torn by the separation from the other two boys. His brothers have been put out to hard masters, and Josset feels he must be with them at all costs, so he tries to run away at every opportunity. Aunt Persis thinks to solve this problem by locking him in the attic. He escapes, but when brought back he thinks of a better plan.

I was about eight when I discovered this book. My mom would take us to the main library and we’d all go off to the area set aside for our age group. We would be there for hours.

I loved this book. I would return it after two weeks and, once it was back on the shelf, check it out again. I was enchanted by the idea of Sally’s adventures with the three boys, maybe because I often spent time with my four male cousins.

Of course I had a different reaction to the book this time; it’s definitely written for the young. And I don’t even know if an eight-year old of today would be taken by this story. I hope they would be. We were a more naive people, I think, but fine is still fine, and this is a fine book.




( TBR Book Links 1-20 )
21. Roses are White by Lesley Lambert
22. Giants' Star (Giants #3) by James P. Hogan
23. Duma Key by Stephen King
24. Magic In My Shoes by Constance Savery







2021 MONTHLY MOTIF READING CHALLENGE by girlxoxo



MAY- Magnificent Middle Grade. Read a Middle Grade book – a book that is marketed toward ages 8-14.

Magic in My Shoes by Constance Savery

Turning away from the privileged world of the "eminent Victorians," Gertrude Bell (1868—1926) explored, mapped, and excavated the world of the Arabs. Recruited by British intelligence during World War I, she played a crucial role in obtaining the loyalty of Arab leaders, and her connections and information provided the brains to match T. E. Lawrence's brawn. After the war, she played a major role in creating the modern Middle East and was, at the time, considered the most powerful woman in the British Empire.

In this masterful biography, Janet Wallach shows us the woman behind these achievements–a woman whose passion and defiant independence were at odds wit the confined and custom-bound England she left behind. Too long eclipsed by Lawrence, Gertrude Bell emerges at last in her own right as a vital player on the stage of modern history, and as a woman whose life was both a heartbreaking story and a grand adventure.

Bell’s life was truly a contradiction. Worldly, yet naive, Independent, yet very much swayed by the men in her life. Demanding to be treated as an equal to men, yet she didn’t support the suffragettes of her time. The book does an excellent job of explaining those contradictions by highlighting the men who shaped her life, especially her father, and those she would come to love, though eventually lose.

It’s a fascinating story. From the fall of the Ottoman Empire, to the transformation of Mesopotamia into the countries the world would come to call the Middle East, we see it through the eyes of this remarkable, yet ultimately tragic woman.

But it’s not just her story, though she had much to do with it. It’s also the story of “Arabia,” a place she would come to love more than her place of birth. It would be wonderful to see it as she did, as so much is now gone: Umayyad Masque of Aleppo, greatly damaged during Syria’s civil war, it’s in the very early process of being restored. The Temple of Baalshamin, destroyed by ISIS in 2015. But some still survives. Al-Ukhaidir Fortress in Iraq, which Bell discovered, though credit would be stolen from her. The ruined castle of Qasr al-Azraq in Jordan. The 7th century palace of Persian king Khosrow II at Qasr al-Mushatta.

A truly unique story of a most compelling part of the world. It well worth reading.




Mount TBR 2021 Book Links

Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

1. The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry
2. Polaris (Alex Benedict #2) by Jack McDevitt
3. How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
4. Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories From My Childhood: Beloved Fairy Tales from the Queen to Cinderella by Mikhail Baryshnikov
5. The Fateful Lightning (Civil War: 1861-1865, Western Theater #4) by Jeff Shaara
6. Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
7. The Petticoat Men by Barbara Ewing
8. Lily Pond: Four Years with a Family of Beavers by Hope Ryden
9. Running with the Demon (The Word & The Void #1) by Terry Brooks
10. The Gentle Giants of Ganymede (Giants #2) by James P. Hogan
11. Ararat (Ben Walker #1) by Christopher Golden
12. If It Bleeds by Stephen King
13. American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White Jr.
14. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
15. Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell Adventurer, Adviser to Kings by Janet Wallach












2021 MONTHLY MOTIF READING CHALLENGE by girlxoxo



MARCH- Countries and Cultures. Read a book set in a country, or about a culture, that’s different than your own and that you’d like to learn more about.

Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia
by Janet Wallach

This gorgeous anthology of fairy tales - some classic, some less familiar to Western readers - is based on the award-winning series of animated stories, Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories From My Childhood. The series introduced to the United States the work of Soyuzmultfilm Studios, a group of Soviet artists who illustrated well-known European and Russian fairy tales starting in the 1930s.
In a foreword, world-renowned ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov describes growing up watching these films in the Soviet Union. He has been a strong supporter of the importation of the films to the U.S., and will discuss his appreciation of the art form and the timelessness of the stories. The illustrations for the stories are beautiful. Animated film stills will be pulled from the original celluloid, bringing new life to already stunning artwork. An afterword by the authors provides a history of the animation studio.

If you were a kid in Phoenix, anytime between 1954 and 1989, you probably watched the “Wallace and Ladmo Show,” a daytime kid’s show. I certainly did. One of the things I remembered them showing was a series of cartoon serials, mostly of fairy tales. Some, like Beauty and the Beast, I’d heard of. Some, like Ivan and his Magic Pony, I hadn’t. But all were beautifully drawn. Each episode was about three minutes long, the length of most cartoons. They would show one episode a week, so that the story would take a couple of months to unfold.

For years I would ask other people about them. No one seemed to remember. Finally, after years of searching, I ran across this book. There were the stories, just as colorful, just as glorious, as the films. Until then, I hadn’t realized that the films had originally been produced in Russia.

It’s a short book, but one that would be perfect in introducing the magic of fairy tales to young readers. There isn’t the gore of the original Grimm and Anderson stories, nor the cruelty of many ancient myths. But they do include life lessons, as do most fairy tales.

I would soon find that the fairy tales were available on DVD, remastered with the voices of popular actors. They’re a great addition to the book, bringing added life to the stories.




Mount TBR 2021 Book Links

Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

1. The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
2. Polaris
3. How Democracies Die
4. Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories From My Childhood: Beloved Fairy Tales from the Queen to Cinderella












2021 LJ BOOK BINGO






JANUARY-  Once Upon A Time. Read a book from the Fantasy, Fairytale, Mythology, or Folklore Sub Genres.

Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories From My Childhood: Beloved Fairy Tales from the Queen to Cinderella