"The Tudor Conspiracy" by C. W. Gortner~Master of Historical Fiction!

SUMMARY :

Hunted by a shadowy foe in Bloody Mary’s court, Brendan Prescott plunges into London’s treacherous underworld to unravel a dark conspiracy that could make Elizabeth queen—or send her to her death in C.W. Gortner's The Tudor Conspiracy

England, 1553: Harsh winter encroaches upon the realm. Mary Tudor has become queen to popular acclaim and her enemies are imprisoned in the Tower. But when she’s betrothed to Philip, Catholic prince of Spain, putting her Protestant subjects in peril, rumors of a plot to depose her swirl around the one person whom many consider to be England’s heir and only hope—the queen’s half-sister, Princess Elizabeth.

Haunted by his past, Brendan Prescott lives far from the intrigues of court. But his time of refuge comes to an end when his foe and mentor, the spymaster Cecil, brings him disquieting news that sends him on a dangerous mission. Elizabeth is held captive at court, the target of the Spanish ambassador, who seeks her demise. Obliged to return to the palace where he almost lost his life, Brendan finds himself working as a double-agent for Queen Mary herself, who orders Brendan to secure proof that will be his cherished Elizabeth’s undoing.

Plunged into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with a mysterious opponent who hides a terrifying secret, Brendan races against time to retrieve a cache of the princess’s private letters, even as he begins to realize that in this dark world of betrayal and deceit, where power is supreme and sister can turn against sister, nothing—and no one—is what it seems.

PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :

Published by:  St. Martin's Griffin
Pages:  329 plus Author's Notes & Reading Group Guide
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Author:  C.W. Gortner
Website:  http://www.cwgortner.com


ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

 
C.W. Gortner holds an MFA in Writing, with an emphasis in Renaissance Studies. Raised in Spain and half Spanish by birth, he currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

He travels extensively to research his books, and has experienced life in a medieval Spanish castle and danced a galliard in a Tudor great hall.

A contributor to the magazines Historical Novels Review and Solander as well as an advocate for animal

He welcomes readers and is always available for reader group chats.

Please visit him at www.cwgortner.com for more information.  You can also follow Christopher on Facebook and Twitter.


THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

So much fun to read!  This historical fiction/mystery is filled with madcap twists, daring deeds and mayhem in the 1500's.  A great cast of characters who sort out a conspiracy involving both Queen Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I.  I couldn't put the book down, so I read the nearly 340 pages straight through on Saturday!

C.W. Gortner is known for being the master of historical fiction, so there was no question that "The Tudor Conspiracy" would be a good book.  However, I didn't expect it to have this lighter, yet so interesting a plot!  The muddles and turns of fate are not easily assumed, making the story exciting and engaging.  I never saw several of the events happening before they came up!  Loved the mystery of them all.  The ending was especially enjoyable and surprising.

While we know many of the characters from history, the central, created protagonist, Brendan Prescott (Beecham), could have been every bit as real.  Mr. Gortner has created him in full.  He's a living and breathing spy who plays amongst the actual historical figures as if he were one of them.  Amazing characterization.  I fell in love with him, his bravery, and his deductions in the care of both the rivaling Queen and Elizabeth.  In fact, it's the balance of this loyalty that I found endearing.

This is an intriguing court mystery filled with danger and twists of fate.  You'll love the historical characterizations.  While some things are left to Gortner's imagination, of course, they become alive and fleshed out to the point of believability.  Much of what Brendan sees and experiences as he narrates the story touches your heart.  I was especially moved by his seeing Lady Jane Grey in the Tower before her execution.

C.W. Gortner in this mystery genre is as compelling as in his other historical fiction!  I can't wait to read the first book in this series, "The Tudor Secret."   I look forward to more in the series, as well.

5 stars          Deborah/TheBookishDame



*Note:  This review was brought to you in cooperation with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
but the review itself reflects only my personal views and opinions.

Please follow the entire Book Tour here:  http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/thetudorconspiracyvirtualtour/

This is the UK cover of the book.  Interesting....  I like it.  It, too, tells a lot about the story inside!

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"The Orphanmaster" by Jean Zimmerman~Delicious Writing!

SUMMARY :

A love story wrapped around a murder mystery, set in seventeenth-century Manhattan
In 1663 in the hardscrabble colony of New Amsterdam—today’s lower Manhattan—orphan children are going missing and residents suspect a serial killer. The list of possible culprits is long and strange. Among those looking into the mystery are a shrewd young Dutch woman, Blandine van Couvering, and a dashing Englishman, Edward Drummond, whose newfound romance is threatened by horrible accusations.

             In this spellbinding work of historical fiction, Jean Zimmerman relates the harsh realities of life in early Manhattan, re-creating the sights, smells, and textures of the rough settlement surrounded by wilderness and subject to political turmoil. Compulsively readable and filled with New York history, The Orphanmaster will delight fans of Caleb Carr, Hilary Mantel, and Geraldine Brooks.


PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :

Published by:  Penguin Group
Pages:  432
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Author:  Jean Zimmerman
Website:  Jean Zimmerman
Purchase this book:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-orphanmaster-jean-


ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

Throughout her writing career Jean Zimmerman has published critically acclaimed nonfiction that focuses on the changing role of women in America.

 

Now, in her debut novel The Orphanmaster, she tells the story of a beautiful, determined female trader in 1663 New Amsterdam, the Dutch colony at the foot of Manhattan Island, who sees orphans go missing and decides to catch the killer before it’s too late. A love story wrapped around a murder mystery, The Orphanmaster draws on Zimmerman’s copious research into the history of early Manhattan.

 

Her previous work, Love, Fiercely: A Gilded Age Romance, is a history that focuses on the lives of the great chronicler of New York City, I.N. Phelps Stokes, and his iconic wife Edith—preservationists, philanthropists, and denizens of Gilded Age Manhattan.

Before that, her book The Women of the House: How a Colonial She-Merchant Built a Mansion, a Fortune and a Dynasty (Harcourt, 2006) was an Original Voices Selection, Borders, 2006, and Washington Irving Book Selection, Westchester Library Association, 2007.
An honors graduate of Barnard College, Jean Zimmerman earned an MFA in writing from the Columbia University School of the Arts.

She lives with her family in Westchester County, New York.


Video Telling by Ms Zimmerman about her novel:

 

THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

Lovely, lush language!  This is a novel like some you hear about that the words are so beautifully crafted and presented you can't help reading them.  Ms Zimmerman is a wordsmith of the most unique.  Her every description is dipped in silver.  I found this a gorgeous, delicious read for that alone, not to mention everything else about the book.

Characterization is just wonderful.  Zimmerman's protagonist Blondine is rich in depth as a person.  She virtually leaps off the page.  So self-assured and so womanly in a Manhattan that is still wild and being controlled by powerful men.  Amidst Native Americans and Free Slaves, as well, Blondine holds her own and is respected as an independent woman.  She is awesome!  And, her love story with Drummond is a rich and rewarding read.  So heart-tugging!

The mystery at the center of the novel kept me flipping pages, as well.  I also have to admit a great fondness for the Orphanmaster, regardless of the fact that he was despicable most of the time.  My curiosity kept me completely engaged, and I couldn't easily find out what happened to the missing children.

This is a book you'll be surprised about.  It's a hidden treasure.  I loved reading it for the descriptions, the use of language and the history of New York/Manhattan.  And, I thoroughly enjoyed the love story and the mystery. 

You'll find this a far cry from what seems like the efforts of a first time novelist.  It's one of the best!!

5 Stars                        Deborah/TheBookishDame

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"The Age of Desire" by Jennie Fields~Interview w/ Author!

 

 

 

 

BOTH BEAUTIFUL COVERS OF THIS BOOK....

 

 

SUMMARY :

 

For fans of The Paris Wife, a sparkling glimpse into the life of Edith Wharton and the scandalous love affair that threatened her closest friendship

They say that behind every great man is a great woman. Behind Edith Wharton, there was Anna Bahlmann—her governess turned literary secretary and confidante. At the age of forty-five, despite her growing fame, Edith remains unfulfilled in a lonely, sexless marriage. Against all the rules of Gilded Age society, she falls in love with Morton Fullerton, a dashing young journalist. But their scandalous affair threatens everything in Edith’s life—especially her abiding ties to Anna.

             At a moment of regained popularity for Wharton, Jennie Fields brilliantly interweaves Wharton’s real letters and diary entries with her fascinating, untold love story. Told through the points of view of both Edith and Anna, The Age of Desire transports readers to the golden days of Wharton’s turn-of-the century world and—like the recent bestseller The Chaperone—effortlessly re-creates the life of an unforgettable woman.

 

 

PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :

 

Published by:  Penguin Books

Pages:  352

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Author:  Jennie Fields

Website:  Jennie Fields

Find your copy:  Barnes & Noble

 

 

 

 

Praise for The Age of Desire

“Somewhere between the repressiveness of Edith Wharton’s early-20th-century Age of Innocence and our own libertine Shades of Grey era lies the absorbingly sensuous world of Jennie Fields’s The Age of Desire . . . along with the overheated romance and the middle-age passion it so accurately describes, The Age of Desire also offers something simpler and quieter: a tribute to the enduring power of female friendship.” —Boston Globe

“One doesn’t have to be an Edith Wharton fan to luxuriate in the Wharton-esque plotting and prose Fields so elegantly conjures.” —Kirkus

“Delicate and imaginative . . . Fields’s love and respect for all her characters and her care in telling their stories shines through." —Publishers Weekly

Beautiful ... an imaginative tour-de-force with the best-written naughty bits I have ever read." —UK Daily Mail

Inspired by Wharton’s letters, The Age of Desire is by turns sensuous . . . and sweetly melancholy.  It’s also a moving examination of a friendship between two women. —Bookpage

“A fascinating insight into the life of my favorite novelist. Fields brings a secret side of Wharton to life, and shows us a woman whose elegant façade concealed a turbulent sensuality.” —Daisy Goodwin, author of The American Heiress

“With astonishing tenderness and immediacy, The Age of Desire portrays the interwoven lives of Edith Wharton and Anna Bahlmann, her governess, secretary, and close friend.  By focusing on these two women from vastly different backgrounds, Jennie Fields miraculously illuminates an entire era. . . . I gained insight into both Wharton’s monumental work and her personal struggles—and I was filled with regret that I’d finished reading so soon.” —Lauren Belfer, author of City of Light and A Fierce Radiance

“In the vein of Loving Frank or The Paris Wife, Jennie Fields has created a page-turning period piece. Fields portrays a woman whose life was hardly innocence and mirth, but passionate, complex, and more mysterious

 

 

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

 

 

Born in the heart of the heart of the country – Chicago -- Jennie Fields decided to become a writer at the age of six and produced her first (365 page!) novel when she was eleven.  She received her MFA at the Iowa Writers Workshop and published her first short stories while spending a postgraduate year at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.  But needing to feed her family  in the era just post-Mad Men, she became an early female copywriter at an advertising agency, soon rising to creative director and moving to New York.  In her 32-year advertising career, she wrote and produced many well-known and award-winning commercials.  People even now can embarrass her by telling her they grew up dancing to one of her McDonalds’ jingles. 

Still, fiction was her great love.  Writing during her lunch hour and after her daughter’s bedtime she penned her first novel, Lily Beach, which was published by Atheneum in 1993 to much acclaim.  Since then, she’s written three more novels including Crossing Brooklyn Ferry and The Middle Ages. Her latest, The Age of Desire, is a biographical novel based on the life of the author dearest to her heart, Edith Wharton.  An Editor’s Choice of the New York Times Book Review, it describes Wharton’s mid-life love affair with a you

nger, manipulative man.  Why the affinity to Wharton?  Because she wrote about people attempting to break society’s expectations for them – which is something Fields has been yearning to do all her life.




INTERVIEW WITH MS FIELDS!!!!

Jennie Fields has kindly agreed to be with us this morning with an interview and we so appreciate it!  Welcome and thank you for taking time from your schedule with chat with us, Jennie...  Let me begin the interview:

1)       Tell us something about yourself, please.  How do most people describe you?

I think people would say I’m warm.  I love to cook, host people at my house.  I care a lot about my friends, my home.  I love to walk. I walk five miles a day on average.  I don’t know how to drive!  Most people find this odd, but I lived in Chicago and New York City for most of my adult life, and never needed to drive.  I’m married to my college sweetheart.  We broke up, married other people and both had kids.  And then years later after both of us were long divorced, we connected and fell in love all over again.  I had a big advertising job in Manhattan and he works at Vanderbilt University, so we commuted between NY and Nashville for ten years!  Four years ago I moved full-time to Nashville.   What a beautiful love story...

 

2)      Briefly, from where did the idea for your novel germinate?

From my agent!  I was stuck on what to write about next and I asked her to let me know if she had a good idea.  One day, while in Paris on business I got an e-mail from her asking me to call her.  She had no idea that I was in Paris, or that that very afternoon, I’d walked down Edith Wharton’s street for the first time.  When I called her back, she said, “I have an idea for you.  Why don’t you write about your favorite author, Edith Wharton?  The serendipity gave me the chills.  I felt it was meant to be.   Amazing, I could really feel Edith speaking through your book.

 

3)      Who first told you you could write well, and how did it affect you?

I’ve always wanted to be a writer – since the age of six.  I wrote my first “novel” at ten!  But in freshman year of high school, I had an English teacher, Mr. O’Neill, who told me, “You really can write, did you know that? You could be a writer.”  I felt so honored, it made me determined to make him right.  Of course, I’ve never forgotten his name.      Teachers make such a difference in our lives.  He was right, of course!

 

4)      Which contemporary authors do you most admire?

I just finished Khaled Hosseini’s “And The Mountains Echoed.”  It was so extraordinary, I wept while reading the last thirty pages.  I also admire Ian McEwan, Sue Miller, Barbara Kingsolver and Mark Helprin.  I don’t know if you’d call them contemporary, but I love John Updike’s short stories – though, not many of his novels.  And John Cheever’s short stories are brilliant.  “Something Happened” by Joseph Heller haunted me for years after reading it.

Gorgeous writers...

 

5)      Which are your favorite classical authors?

Well, Edith Wharton, of course!  I also love Charlotte Bronté, early Henry James, John Steinbeck and Willa Cather.      Any Bronte lover is a friend of mine!!

 

6)      Jump into any book~which character would you be?

Jane Eyre.  I read Jane Eyre for the first time when I was nine and I loved it.  Still do.  Her life wasn’t easy, but I’d like to have her pluck! 

 

7)      If you could have 5 historical people to dinner, who would they be?  What would you have to eat?

Tough question!  Well, let’s see: I’d like to invite Edith Wharton, Dorothy Parker, John Lennon, Oscar Wilde and Gregory Peck.  I suspect they might not get along, but I’d love to talk to each of them!  It would be hard to please that crowd with a single dish.  Perhaps, I should cook a buffet.

8)      Read any good books in the past 6 months?

Many good books, actually.  I mentioned Hosseini’s book, I also loved Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, and Cascade by Maryanne O’Hara.  I reviewed "Cascade" here this year.  It's an extraordinary and wonderful book, I agree.

 

9)      Favorite two tv shows:

 

 Homeland and every season of Mad Men but this past one.

 

10)   Favorite movie of all time:

 

 That’s easy.  Rear Window.  I could watch it a thousand times.  I’m a peeping Tom at heart.  I think all writers are.  When I lived in Brooklyn, I had a view from the back of my brownstone just like Rear Window.  And in every window was a story.

 

11)   Are you working on a new book?  

 

Yes, another biographical novel about a real woman who lived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.  A champion for women, an important art collector.  With a nice love story.

 

12)   Anything else I forgot to ask you?

 

No, but I’d like to invite readers to visit my website at jenniefields.com where they can look at photos of the real characters from The Age of Desire.  There’s also a page where you can sign up for me to join your book group to discuss The Age of Desire, (via Skype if you’re far away.)  I hope readers will also “like” my Facebook page for updates on my new book, or connect with me on Twitter: @jfieldsauthor

Thanks so much for your great questions!         Thank you, Jennie!  Loved your answers, and I can hardly wait for your new book to come out.  "A champion for women an important art collector." Hits some good bases for me!

 

 

Ms Fields reads one of her favorite passage from her book:

 

 

THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

Needless to say, I found "The Age of Desire" completely captivating.  Edith Wharton is one of my favorite authors, and I wanted to know more about her, so tripping the fantasy seemed a good way to enjoy her life.  Jennie Fields, I found is the perfect author for this voyage into Mrs. Warton's life because she seemed to climb into her persona with ease.  I was mesmerized by this beautiful book.

The novel was written in influence of the style of Mrs. Wharton's Age, I felt.  There was a tightness to the writing and a certain flow to it that put me in mind of her writings, as well as that of Henry James.  Mrs. Wharton, herself, was never far from being controlled in her emotions, and the novel itself was written in this tone.  It created a setting for the story that held it true to the places and times the characters lived and loved.

There is a tension in the love life of Edith and her journalist love interest that caused me to be in mind of my first loves.  That push-pull of great passion with an uncertainty of the other's feelings.  And, when the great love develops, there is the ever present desire never to be parted from him no matter what the cost.  In Edith's life there was a cost but never one she wasn't willing to pay.

Running in tandem to her affair with the journalist, Morton Fullerton, is the deep love/friendship connection she has with her secretary, Anna.  This other love is beautifully and stealthily handled by Ms Fields, and is deeply moving.  Her husband, Teddy, is the other link in the chain featured in the book.  His life ran the borders of both these capable and beautiful women.

I couldn't put this book down.  It walked me through the life of Edith Wharton and her ever valuable "secretary" and best friend Anna, who was the help and assistant for her wonderful books.  I loved that Ms Fields was so adept at capturing the spirit of the Age and of the primary characters.  I felt I knew Mrs. Wharton better and came to understand her in a different way.

You'll enjoy this novel.  It's a serious book in many ways, as is any book that seeks to display the truth about its characters and provide a living, important storyline.  Jennie Fields is a fabulous author; capable, interesting and worthy.

I cannot say more than to highly recommend this sensuous, secretive novel to you!

5 stars                  Deborah/The Bookish Dame



This interview and review are brought to you in cooperation with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Reviews.  All of the opinions are strictly my own, however.

Please follow the entire tour:   Link to Tour Schedule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/theageofdesiretour/
Twitter Hashtag: #AgeOfDesireTour

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"Somerset" by Leila Meacham~Gorgeous Historical Saga

 

SUMMARY:

 

One hundred fifty years of Roses' Tolivers, Warwicks, and DuMonts! We begin in the antebellum South on Plantation Alley in South Carolina, where Silas Toliver, deprived of his inheritance, joins up with his best friend Jeremy Warwick to plan a wagon train expedition to the "black waxy" promise of a new territory called Texas. Slavery, westward expansion, abolition, the Civil War, love, marriage, friendship, tragedy and triumph-all the ingredients (and much more) that made so many love Roses so much-are here in abundance.

 

 

PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK:

 

Published by:  Grand Central Publishing

Pages:  624

Genre:  Historial Fiction

Author:  Leila Meacham

Purchase:   Barnes & Noble

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

 

 

Leila Meacham is a writer and former teacher who lives in San Antonio, Texas. She is the author of the bestselling novels Roses and Tumbleweeds.

 

 

 

 

THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS:

 

 

Lelia Meacham is my favorite romance/saga writer of these times.  She stole my heart in her huge novel some years ago, "Roses," and continued to do so with this continuation of the families in "Somerset."  If you love a big and heart-wrenching story with every twist and knife-edged turn of love and adventure...you'll love this book.  It's a stand alone, but if you read "Roses" first, you'll love it even more.

 

 

Meacham's characters are so engaging you could just eat them up.  Jessica, the main female character, is strong willed, bigger than life, and exasperating; but, she's so lovable and identifiable as the matriarch of a dynasty.  I sometimes wanted to reach out and shake her, and sometimes just cried with and for her as she matured.  Her love interest/husband, and one of the male central figures of the story, Silas, was definitely the Rhett Butler of the story.  So unattainable at first, and so exhaustively desirable in the end even to me!  In fact, I loved all the characters (Jeremy, Tippy and Joshua, and all the descendants of Jessica and Silas, and their friends...) and I couldn't get enough of each of their stories through the years. 

 

 

"Somerset" is a book I couldn't wait to get back to every day.  I had a lot of things going on this weekend, and didn't get to everything, but I made my way back to my ebook to finish this novel, nevertheless.  It's addictive, touching, a tear-jerker, and so strong and beautiful a story it just keeps you on tender hooks.  I was sad to see it end.

 

If you're looking for a wonderful historical fiction/romance saga, this is the one.  You'll always remember it and the beautiful characters that fill its pages.

 

5 stars                          Deborah/TheBookishDame

 

 



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"Queen's Gambit" by Elizabeth Fremantle~Interview w/ Author!

SUMMARY :

Widowed for the second time at age thirty-one Katherine Parr falls deeply for the dashing courtier Thomas Seymour and hopes at last to marry for love. However, obliged to return to court, she attracts the attentions of the ailing, egotistical, and dangerously powerful Henry VIII, who dispatches his love rival, Seymour, to the Continent. No one is in a position to refuse a royal proposal so, haunted by the fates of his previous wives—two executions, two annulments, one death in childbirth—Katherine must wed Henry and become his sixth queen.

Katherine has to employ all her instincts to navigate the treachery of the court, drawing a tight circle of women around her, including her stepdaughter, Meg, traumatized by events from their past that are shrouded in secrecy, and their loyal servant Dot, who knows and sees more than she understands. With the Catholic faction on the rise once more, reformers being burned for heresy, and those close to the king vying for position, Katherine’s survival seems unlikely. Yet as she treads the razor’s edge of court intrigue, she never quite gives up on love.

PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :

Published by:  Simon & Schuster
Pages:  407  then historical character detail
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Author  Elizabeth Fremantle
Find the book:  Barnes & Noble and other places that sell books


ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

Elizabeth Fremantle holds a first class degree in English and an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck College London. She has contributed as a fashion editor to various publications including Vogue, Elle and The Sunday Times. QUEEN’S GAMBIT is her debut novel and is the first in a Tudor trilogy. The second novel, SISTERS OF TREASON, will be released in 2014. She lives in London.
For more about Elizabeth and her future projects, please visit her website. You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and Pinterest.


INTERVIEW!!

Ms Fremantle has kindly agreed to an interview with A Bookish Libraria today, and we're so excited to have her and to have some pleasing insights into this gifted author.  Thanks so much for joining us, Elizabeth.  Let the games begin!!

1)       Tell us something about yourself, please.  How do most people describe you?

It depends who you ask – my children would describe me as the most un-cool mother known to man, my friends would probably say I was good at keeping a secret, my family would say I’m the tricky one, my ex husband might say I was neurotic but on the other hand he’d say I’m a good mother and a good friend, strangers sometimes say I’m aloof until I get to know them and they realize I’m just a little shy and me, well I suppose I’m the usual combination of contradictions.

 

2)      Briefly, from where did the idea for your novel germinate?

I had long suspected that Katherine Parr was more interesting than history has suggested and when I began to research her I began to see that it was true. I then decided to visit Hampton Court Palace (where she was married to Henry VIII) and found a reenactment of that wedding taking place. It seemed like such a wonderful piece of serendipity and really got my imagination going.

3)      Who first told you you could write well, and how did it affect you?

Funnily enough I don’t remember ever being told that, or not until fairly recently. But then I never showed my writing to anyone. I did an MA in Creative Writing and one of my tutors was very encouraging which was good for my confidence.     So many writers are shy about their writing...

        4)    Which contemporary authors do you most admire?

I am a big fan of Hilary Mantel and think as a prose stylist she’s astonishingly good; Rose Tremain’s a favorite of mine too, her writing is beautiful and she has a wicked sense of humor; I always enjoy Sarah Waters’s books, she manages to write gripping novels that also have great depth.     Interesting that you should say Sarah Waters because she doesn't get the attention she deserves.

         5)   Which are your favorite classical authors?

One of my favorite novels is BEWARE OF PITY by Stephan Zweig – all his work is good but that’s the best in my opinion; I love Henry James too, Flaubert’s MADAME BOVARY is a wonderful novel and Jean Rhys’s short stories are remarkable. I could go on and on…     Henry James is one of my favorites, too.

6)      Jump into any book~which character would you be?

Perhaps someone like Jane Austen’s Emma Woodhouse. She has none of the hardship of poverty and has a happy ending. But alas, life is not like that!

7)      If you could have 5 historical people to dinner, who would they be?  What would you have to eat?

Firstly I would like a full Tudor feast and of course I’d want Katherine Parr there. Perhaps I’d make it a girls’ night: Elizabeth Woodville; Mary Shelley; Penelope Devereaux (who I am researching for book 3) and Elizabeth I         Love that you threw Mary Shelley in the mix.  That should be interesting...

8)      Read any good books in the past 6 months?

BRING UP THE BODIES by Hilary Mantel: it’s as exciting as a thriller and yet literary too. MERIVEL by Rose Tremain: it’s hilarious and so beautifully observed        Reviewed "Bring Up the Bodies" here this year...what a great book.

9)      Favorite two tv shows:

I’ve been enjoying The Borgias – I know it’s historically inaccurate but so much fun, ditto The Tudors (my guilty pleasures I suppose)     Love, loved the Tudors!

10)   Favorite movie of all time:

The Awful Truth with Irene Dunn and Cary Grant (1937) I’m a big fan of screwball comedies and that is one of the best.     Two of my favorite old time actors.  I have to catch this movie some time.

11)   Are you working on a new book?

I am. SISTERS OF TREASON, about the two tragic younger sisters of Lady Jane Grey, is out next year and I’m researching a novel about Penelope Devereaux the sister of the Earl of Essex – called the ‘fair woman with a dark soul’, she’s a fascinating Elizabethan.      Absolutely can't wait for this one!  I love Lady Jane Grey's tragic story!

12)   Anything else I forgot to ask you?

I don’t think so. Thank you so much for having me on your blog.

 

 

Thank you so much for caring enough to visit my blog today.  Wonderful answers, and giving a great range of insight into who you really are as a person and a writer.  Thanks for sharing!

 

 

More about "Queen's Gambit" on Youtube:

 

 

Join me in a read of this beautiful and mysterious historical fiction novel this week... I'll be reviewing it in the coming month!


Deborah/TheBookishDame

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Book Haul Diggin' in the Gold!!

Yikes!! What a miserable picture of some pretty awesome books.  I had a wonderful couple of weeks of mail deliveries, and some tramping around finding books....not that I needed any more, but you know "I Have A Book Problem," so I went searching.   The results are what follows.  I wish my camera was working better because the book covers are just outstanding in this group.  However, onward and so on....

This first book is one I had to buy myself.  I've been hearing so much about it from my YA booksters that I had to have my own copy to find out what all the hoopala was about.  I'm reading this one tomorrow and will report back asap.  By the way, interesting black-background pages here and there to designate parts of the book in starbursts.  Cool.

Here it is:

A Summary:

The Passage meets Ender's Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

As I mentioned above, wildly touted by the YA group, so I'm on it this weekend....


FAVORITE AUTHOR ALERT!!!

Nelson DeMille has a new book coming out in September, and the good people at Center Street/Hachette Book Group were kind enough to let me in early on it!!!   So psyched!!

 Quick Blurb:  "From the locked archives of the Vatican to the overgrown jungles of Ethiopia, an unlikely trio begins a deadly search for the Holy Grail."

That may sound like an ordinary book; however, in the wily and cagey hands of Nelson DeMille, it promises to be an awesome book.  Can't wait to read it.


This next one sent to me by the wonderful people at Minotaur Books/St. Martins, looks to be another good read.  I love suspense/mystery/thrillers like this one.

 

What's it about?    

 

"In the next stunning novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning Julia Keller, following the popular A Killing in the Hills, a pregnant teenager is found murdered at the bottom of a river..."



THE FEVER TREE is a book I found in my travels this week....free library find.  It's in pristine condition, hard cover, and I love the cover image. Deckled edges! So happy when I find a great book like this on a sudden search.

Here's an Overview:

“There is nothing more exciting than a new writer with a genuine voice. I loved it.” —Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey

Frances Irvine, left destitute in the wake of her father’s sudden death, has been forced to abandon her life of wealth and privilege in London and emigrate to the Southern Cape of Africa. 1880 South Africa is a country torn apart by greed. In this remote and inhospitable land she becomes entangled with two very different men...

And,  on the back of the book there's a quote from Hillary Jordan, author of "Mudbound," that says, "The Fever Tree" serves up all the delicious elements of a romantic classic, seasoned by evocative prose and keen moral commentary.  Gobble it up and then shelve it next to the Bronte sisters."

SHELVE it next to the BRONTEs!!  Well, this has me intrigued for sure....



Happily, a book sent kindly from Simon & Schuster:  "Queen's Gambit" by Elizabeth Fremantle.   Love this gorgeous cover!  So interesting...another story about Katherine Parr, but this one looks as if it has a lot of attention to historical detail.  Reviewing it and interviewing the author this coming week or so!!!

 

Quick Summary: 

Widowed for the second time at age thirty-one Katherine Parr falls deeply for the dashing courtier Thomas Seymour and hopes at last to marry for love. However, obliged to return to court, she attracts the attentions of the ailing, egotistical, and dangerously powerful Henry VIII, who dispatches his love rival, Seymour, to the Continent. No one is in a position to refuse a royal proposal so, haunted by the fates of his previous wives—two executions, two annulments, one death in childbirth—Katherine must wed Henry...

Romantic story...."I'll be at Platform 4 Paddington Monday evening, and there is nothing in the world that would make me happier than if you found the courage to come with me."

...that's the back cover top section description of this book.  I died.  Have you ever had that happen to you, or wished you had?  I can't wait to read this book.   FOUND it in my Club sharing library.  It's perfect.

SUMMARY: 

A sophisticated, page-turning double love story spanning forty years-an unforgettable Brief Encounter for our times.

It is 1960. When Jennifer Stirling wakes up in the hospital, she can remember nothing-not the tragic car accident that put her there, not her husband, not even who she is. She feels like a stranger in her own life until she stumbles upon an impassioned letter, signed simply "B", asking her to leave her husband.

Years later, in 2003, a journalist named Ellie discovers the same enigmatic letter in a forgotten file in her newspaper's archives. She becomes obsessed by the story and hopeful that it can resurrect her faltering career. Perhaps if these lovers had a happy ending she will find one to her own complicated love life, too. Ellie's search will rewrite history and help her see the truth about her own modern romance.

A spellbinding, intoxicating love story with a knockout ending...

Quick pics and summaries of the other books I ferreted out and got free this past week.  I do encourage recycling and sharing of books, as well as buying them.  Anything to keep the printed word alive and well helps. 

The following have just beautiful covers and I didn't choose them to become a matching set...but here they are in paperback and flawless:

(Already reviewed for you last year...)

Just couldn't resist getting this lovely paperback copy of the book I reviewed.  I like to pass them on to my daughter.  This is an awesome book!!!   Martha's Vineyard, 1960's, insanity...  love it!!


An author I keep promising to read:

Overview

Penny Vincenzi, with over one million copies sold and fifteen bestsellers, queen of the riveting family drama, delivers her most deliciously page-turning saga yet in this novel of intrigue, sure to please her legions of fans. "Satisfaction guaranteed" says The Washington Post. The night before her lavish wedding, Cressida Forrest went to bed serene and happy. By morning she had vanished—without apparent cause, and without a trace...

Very Unlike me...but I thought I would give this one a try because I've heard such wonderful things about Sarah Dessen.

Summary:  Since her parents' bitter divorce, Mclean and her dad, a restaurant consultant, have been on the move - four towns in two years. Estranged from her mother and her mother's new family, Mclean has followed her dad in leaving the unhappy past behind. And each new place gives her a chance to try out a new persona: from cheerleader to drama diva. But now, for the first time, Mclean discovers a desire to stay in one place and just be herself - whoever that is...

AND last but not least....

 

Quite the stir in the book world: 

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND ONE OF KIRKUS REVIEWS' BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

It is 1943—the height of the Second World War. With the men away at the front, Berlin has become a city of women.

On the surface, Sigrid Schröder is the model German soldier’s wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime.

But behind this façade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman of passion who dreams of her former Jewish lover, now lost in the chaos of the war. But Sigrid is not the only one with secrets—she soon finds herself caught between what is right and what is wrong, and what falls somewhere in the shadows between the two . . .

So Ends My Book Haul for this week.  I'm happily skipping amongst my book stacks.  I have no more bookcase space.  :]  I'm tripping over books when I try to sit in my chair.  My dog has to come to me between book stacks.  I can hardly see my husband when I'm sitting down.....get the picture?

Please let me know what you'll be reading this month.

Deborah/TheBookishDame

 

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