6.06.2011

Books of May (and April)

3 more books down. I think that makes 10 historical fiction books read so far this year (as part of this challenge), so only 5 more! In the past, I’ve always tried to force myself to read more non-fiction but as soon as I take part in a fiction challenge, everything I seem to pick up is non-fiction. Murphy’s law!

The House at Riverton
This was actually an April read but I guess I only wrote about it in my head (am I the only person who writes posts in their head and thinks they posted them but didn’t?)
I probably would have liked this book better had I not just finished The Forgotten Garden. Kate Morton has a definite style since this has the same multiple viewpoints, flashbacks, concurrent storylines and major plot developments hinging on seemingly insignificant details that The Forgotten Garden did. I happen to think she does it well but it was hard not to compare the books because of that (I also found myself wondering if she had an strained relationship with her mother but felt close to her grandmother since that seemed to be prominent in both books but that is neither here nor there). Although I liked The Forgotten Garden better, The House at Riverton still had engaging characters and an intriguing story. I figured out a few things early on but I couldn’t predict the end which, for me at least, is a plus.

 North and South
Once I saw the miniseries, it was pretty much a given that I would read this book. North and South is not a reference to the the civil war, but about the two contrasting cultures of England. The main character Margaret Hale is originally from the agrarian South but must now learn to live in the industrial North when her father moves the family there. Can she adjust to the difference? Or, maybe more importantly, can she do it without falling in love?
Not surprisingly, I loved it. It was a bit different from the movie but as is usually the case in movie/book comparisons, the book was just more, especially in regards to the characters. We actually get to know the “South” characters and the many of the others are not so black and white as we see in the miniseries, especially Margaret’s parents. (That’s not to say the movie is bad, I liked the ending and the first proposal scenes better in the movie…and on a not quite related note, does anyone else think Richard Armitage would make a good Captain Wentworth?) All in all, both are good.

Northhanger Abbey – I’m including this even though I’ve read it before because it has been about 10 years since my last reading. I hadn’t read it since then because I thought it was my least favorite Jane Austen book. I’m not sure what my 16 year old self was thinking (although, does anyone really understand what they were thinking when they were 16?) because it’s great. Yes, it is still my least favorite in terms of characters and plot, I don’t really care if Catherine and Henry end up together or not, but that really isn’t the point. If I wasn’t already sure of it, this book would prove to me that Jane was an incredibly witty, and dare I say, fun women and that spending an afternoon with her would have been highly amusing.

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