The Other Boleyn Girl review

If my World History teachers would have found textbooks that were half as engaging as The Other Boleyn Girl, I would have aced he subject. Phillipa Gregory does a fantastic job of taking a very complex and potentially confusing period in Britain's history and completely sucking the reader in. I've never been able to follow the Tudor line until now, and it's because for the first time I can see them as people (or characters) instead of just names across a page. If only textbook writers could make history this compelling....

The novel follows Mary Boleyn, Queen Anne's younger sister, who at the age of about fourteen becomes King Henry VIII's second mistress. Although she is married already, her family (sister Anne included, as well as brother George) schemes to make her the king's favorite in hopes that she will provide him with the male heir that his wife, Katherine, has failed to do. Mary has two children, but when they are stripped from her, she falls out of love with king and court, leaving the opening for Anne, the more ambitious of the two, to step in. Obviously, Anne wins the king and displaces Katherine as queen.

The characterizations of the principals were beautifully done. The Boleyn sisters, Mary and Anne, remained sympathetic throughout the novel despite their wavering between petty courtier machinations and their desires for deeper meaning in their lives. I was never able to see Anne Boleyn as more than a conniving b***h, who stole the queenship, and she mostly was, but Gregory gives her some real heart and emotion. Anne experiences real love at one point and it is stolen from her because of her gender, her inability to decide her own destiny. Who wouldn't become a harpy after that? Mary is little more than a pawn for the majority of the novel, but manages to rise above the intrigue of the court at last in sharp contrast to her sister.

King Henry is given depth as well. Instead of just a fat, gluttonous tyrant, Gregory shows glimpses of him as a doting husband and father to his legitimate wife. Although he did have his mistresses, he did have a very high regard for Katherine, and even for Anne until she overstepped her bounds. He is a classic example of how 'absolute power corrupts absolutely.'

I listened to the audio of The Other Boleyn Girl and Ruthie Henshall's narration was lovely to hear. She kept the characters distinct and moved the story along as well as any bard of old.

I give this novel 4.75 out of 5 stars and recommend it as a great summer read.

Stephen King's Duma Key - a reader's review

“God punishes us for what we can’t imagine,” says Jerome Wireman, an ex-lawyer who's taken up caring for an elderly octogenarian named Elizabeth Eastlake in Stephen King’s latest horrifying tale, Duma Key. Wireman is grossly understating the situation. Duma Key is the story of Edgar Freemantle, who due to a freak accident, goes from a construction mogul to losing much of his memory, arm, wife and ability to control his insane rages. One of those rages leads him to try to strangle his wife and she divorces him. But the God of Stephen King’s world is not a complete bastard. Edgar gains some miraculous abilities, which right there should raise the flags and jingle the warning bells. At the suggestion of his therapist, Edgar relocates to Duma Key, a nearly deserted Key on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Horror and mayhem ensue. Of course they do. It’s not giving anything away to say this – in any Stephen King novel, you know there’s going to be a spooky Big Bad, and most likely one with lots of ‘teef.’ The book is a wonderful read, and whether he’s writing more deeply or I am reading more deeply with age, Duma Key feels more personal and real than ever, which is endearing and chilling all at once.

As the reader follows Edgar through his very strenuous recovery, it is impossible to miss the parallels to Mr. King’s own life. There are twelve short discourses on the artistic process: “How to Draw a Picture,” that could easily translate to (Mr. King’s) the writing process while at the same time delivering Elizabeth’s back story. But the real beauty is that Duma Key, more than any of his other novels, seems to give a little sense of Mr. King sitting down in a small room with Constant Reader one dark night, a small fire flickering lazily in a hearth behind him, perhaps after a couple glasses of wine or a few beers, and saying very quietly, very seriously, “so this is what it was like.” Mr. King has always maintained a tight relationship with his readers and Duma Key seems to have added a level of intimacy to the relationship that will certainly move the occasional reader as well as the faithful.

Without getting too tangential, a friend of a friend commented that she felt Mr. Kings last few releases have become violent in a different way that she’s come to expect. Well, honestly, my first thought was, he’s a horror writer – how can you not expect violence? But I think I know what she means. There have been some elements in the last couple of books that have seemed a bit more random and grounded in reality than in past works. Yet this does not distress me in the least. While I tend to avoid news stories of freak accidents and child abductions, these things do happen. They are true. And Mr. King tells the truth, even if it is surrounded by the supernatural and fantastical. He also likes the underdog, so whereas in real life the victim rarely gets avenged in any visceral and satisfying way, Kings characters have been getting to whoop the bad guys’ butts and hand them back on splintery skewers. What’s not to appreciate about that? I say: Bravo!

I’ll admit, I am extremely biased about Mr. King. I’ve been a Constant Reader since the age of nine when Christine made me wary of big car grilles. But that notwithstanding, I can still recognize the stronger vs. weaker of his creations. Duma Key is, no doubt, up there among the best. The writing is engaging, tense, sweet and elegant – Stephen King fully in the zone. This one gets a wholehearted recommendation from me.

The Temeraire Series

I've been reading Naomi Novik's historical fantasy series for a while now and for the most part, I love it. The first book, His Majesty's Dragon introduced Laurence, a naval officer who by an odd twist becomes a dragon aviator. And the reader watches the relationship between aviator and dragon, Temeraire, develop into one of the most intense and loving partnerships I've ever seen. I already loved dragons, but Novik goes far beyond your traditional dragon story. She shows a whole culture built around this aerial corps and her attention to detail is magnificent. And Temeraire is amazingly developed - he's smart, witty, fiercely loyal to his aviator and crew - if this ever gets made into a movie, he'll have women of all ages swooning over him.

The conflict is set during the Napoleonic wars with the added bonus of dragons acting as sort of fighter planes, complete with gunners, cargo holds and full crews. The dragons are intelligent and the different breeds have special abilities. What I wouldn't give to live in this world!

The second book, Throne of Jade, takes Laurence and Temeraire on an adventure to the far east. Here the reader learns more about him and his background amidst a back drop of a very well crafted intrigue. Temeraire is a Chinese dragon, you see, and they have a very different outlook on dragons than their European counterparts. While this book slowed down considerably, it was still an exciting read. Temeraire grows in some poignant ways, while receiving a few lessons in the harshness and injustice of the world.

The third book is where I'm having some trouble. Laurence and Temeraire must get back home with a very time sensitive cargo in this third installment. The first problem is obtaining the package, the second is getting across the world through several different obstacles and delays. The delays are where the book starts to falter. There is still lots of intrigue, betrayal, vengeance, and more, but for some reason I'm finding Black Powder War less engaging and very plodding. Even the battle sequences seem to lack the same lustre as in the first two novels. I'm a bit more than halfway through, but it seems to be taking forever. Hopefully it will pick up and I'll finish it some time this year.