I'm telling you, I'm super sick of these book reviews (this is mainly because I've been knitting more and I could really not care less about the reviews now). I remember all the way back in January, when I got so excited and really put thought into my reviews...and now it's December, I've read 89 books (11 from my goal!) and I just Do Not Care anymore. I am so far behind in my book reviews now that I'm going to be doing THREE in one entry today...and that's okay. Because I make the rules on this blog.
Review: Henry's Blog by Elizabeth Newbery (#87)
My little sister just came back from a week-long, whirlwind tour of London, England, and brought me back this gem -- Henry's Blog: My Life in My Own Words, OBVS! by Elizabeth Newbery, found in the Tower of London gift shop. It was meant as a gag gift, and I read it in one night. Henry's Blog is an extremely short book, written in cyber-speak and blog form, through the eyes of King Henry VIII. I still can't decide how I feel about it. The humorist side of me thinks that it's hilarious (and so does everyone else who has read this, including my father) -- the idea of Henry giving his wives cyber-like nicknames (KatyA for Katharine of Aragon, AnnieB for Anne Boleyn and so forth) and talking himself up constantly. The history major side of me weeps with the idea that kids will read this (it is obviously written for a young adult or teenager). I went back and forth wondering if I should even count this is one of my books for the year. But then something HUGE happened. David read it. Read a book. All the way through. And ENJOYED IT. Clearly, that cemented it. I have to give Henry's Blog a good solid three-star rating, simply for the hilarity factor, and readability (did I mention that my husband read it? A real book? Go figure!)
Rating: ***
Review: Knitting Rules! by Stephanie Pearl McPhee (#88)
This is my second Stephanie Pearl McPhee (otherwise known as the Yarn Harlot) book of the year -- I read The Secret Life of a Knitter back in January -- and I have to say, I enjoyed Knitting Rules! much more than Secret Life. The Yarn Harlot is known as a "knitting humorist", but Knitting Rules! is equal parts funny and useful. I've read it before, and I look at the big as one big pep talk for the anxious knitter, the one who is afraid to try new things, to pick up a skein of yarn and some needles and just go for it. The Yarn Harlot's handy rudimentary sock pattern is also included with step-by-step (no pun intended) instructions -- a great tool for those knitters who are learning to knit socks for the first time. I can't tell you how many times I've gone back over the pages when I've needed a little encouragement. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning how to knit, or who could use a little boost every now and then, a reminder that "in the end, it's just knitting."
Rating: ****
Review: The House of Special Purpose by Colin Falconer
Every so often (usually when I'm broke) I find myself perusing the "free Kindle books" link on Amazon.com. The other day, this book caught my eye, because as a child I was obsessed with anything and everything to do with the Russian Revolution and the fate of the Romanov family. "The House of Special Purpose" was the name given to the Ipatiev house in Ekatrinburg where the Romanovs spent their final days before they were executed. Falconer wrote The House of Special Purpose as a prequel of sorts to his book Anastacia, a sort of "what if" about the fictional destiny of the most famous of the Romanov children, Anastasia Nicholievna. It's tagline is "How was it possible for any of the children to have survived? You won't believe the answer; except it's all true."
I don't know what I was hoping for, but this book was not it. It was a chronicle of the last days of the Romanov family as seen through the eyes of Anastasia and some of the guards employed to imprison the family. Falconer takes every negative story about Anastasia and makes her about the least sympathetic character in literature -- even her fiestiness seems petulant, cruel, and childish. There are some vaguely pornographic descriptions and a scene of female rape (without historical accuracy' the author conjured it up himself, which just lead me to be disgusted and disturbed). The novella also suffers from supreme historical inaccuracy. The cook, Kharitonov, is described as female, yet his real name was Ivan Kharitonov, and he was decidedly male. Also, *SPOILER ALERT* the elephant in the room was the fact that in 2007 it was proved that none of the Romanov children survived the execution -- the remains of the missing two were discovered at last. I wouldn't have been surprised with a novella such as this before 2007, but it was published in September of 2011.
My final "beef" (if you could call it that) with this book was the tired theme, the implausible escape of Anastasia (or another Romanov child). It's been done before. It was done by the mysterious Anna Anderson and countless others in the 20th century. There was a movie made with Ingrid Bergman and the Don Bluth animated film (which I must confess is one of my favorites, even though it's nonsense). With great writing, it might have been pulled off, but the story has been done. Time to move on to something else.
Rating: *
No comments:
Post a Comment