Queen Maker - India Edghill

Queen Maker is a fiction adaptation of a Biblical story, comparable to The Red Tent or Orson Scott Card's Women of Genesis series. Allow me to highlight a word in the previous sentence, fiction. The heroine of the novel is Michal, daughter of Saul and first wife of David. There is not much in the Bible about Michal, so as you can imagine India Edghill had to fill in the lines a lot. Many basic plot elements remained true to the Bible, but where the author used the most artistic license (or just downright distortion) is with the character and motives of David. We all know David committed many wrong acts, but in this novel there is nothing redeemable about him. In addition, the story of Amnon and Tamar was completely changed into a loving, consensual relationship - which is blatantly untrue. Now that I may have said enough for you to never want to even pick up this book, let's look at it from another angle.

If you read this book as fiction, then you will find it completely believable, heart-wrenching, and even empowering. I found that the best way to read this book was to forget that it was supposed to be an adaptation of anything and imagine the king has a name other than David. I felt as though I learned and grew along with Michal. I felt her pain and admired her wisdom. And at its heart, this book is about letting go of hate, turning from revenge and realizing how much it can cost. I also encourage that if you read this book, to then go and read it in the Bible. I do wonder sometimes about David, but if nothing else I will take him as an example of God's great love and mercy for us.

Positives: Great portrayal of the emotions of the characters. Kept the plot fresh, even though it was already familiar. I felt as though I grew along with the character.

Negatives: Definitely NOT biblically accurate - take it with a grain of salt. A few characters I felt were left too shallow, I wished she had delved further into their motivations. A couple slow moments with the plot. Many typos (in my book)!

Rating: 4 - this was a good book.

Keeping Faith - Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult is one of those authors that has a pretty large group of readers who have to read everything she writes. I am not one of those people. I have only read one of her books before, Nineteen Minutes, but I keep her on my list just to see what all the hype is about.

Keeping Faith is about a little girl who starts talking to God, like one would an imaginary friend and later micraculous events occur around her. However, her mother is the main character and most of it revolves around her struggles with her divorce, her identity as a mother, and depression.
This was definitely a worthwhile read. It was engaging and suspenseful. I knew it had a religious topic and was a little concerned that it would seemed forced to be "controversal" and in fact she did manage to include depression/suicide and a child custody case, but despite her use these plot devices, at the core the characters were honest and heartfelt. In some ways, I felt like I waited for a big, revealing climax that never happened. And Picoult nearly abandoned her plot devices with little conclusion. She did allow the characters emotional closure and, I assume, made the point she intended to. In a way, I feel as though Picoult disguises her books as an intellectual, suspenseful "realistic fiction" but this one was little more than good chick lit. I am not trying to detract from the novel, just stating it has no potential to be a classic, which I sometimes get that indication from the hype. Nevertheless, I did enjoy this book.

Positives: Good character development. She managed an interesting and intriging plot, but it did not overpower the entire novel as some do. A page turner and thought-prokoving.

Negatives: It was overwhelming to me, but I could see that some people might feel she had an agenda with the religious overtones of the plot. A couple cliche and stock characters that I could care less about.

Rating: 4 - this was a good book

Moloka'i - Alan Brennert

This is one of the best books that I have read in a while. I had previously read Brennert's other (and later) book, Honolulu, which I enjoyed so I was excited about this one. Moloka'i was undeniably better.

This novel is about a young Hawaiian girl who gets Hansen's disease (Leprosy) and is sent to the Leper colony on Moloka'i. The same place there was a movie about a few years ago centered around Father Damien. As a long time lover of all things Hawaiian this book did not disappoint. He managed to hit many big events in Hawaiian history and gave some great insights to their culture.

Additionally, it was a page-turner, vibrant, and moving. I found the characters endearing, I was really rooting for them and wanting them to find a way to escape their circumstances. One of the things I really like about Brennert's novels is that they are a lifetime epic. There is no wondering at the end, or the let-down of an epilogue that glosses it all over. With the way that he is able to make me absolutely love the characters, it is essential to me to be able to travel with them until the end. And the end is always satisfying and uplifting.

With almost all of the characters in this book being inflicted by leprosy, Brennert raises a lot of philosophical and spiritual issues about their suffering. I feel like he handled them quite well, although he seemed to lean toward the all-encompassing, pagan attitude, he left room for me to interpret them the way I wanted and find some great lessons in there.

Overall, I was left with a strong desire to learn more about this place and go see the beautiful places he described. I do really love Hawai'i and hope I can go to all of the islands one day.

Positives: Amazing character development and enthralling storyline. Very vivid and beautiful language. Left me completely satisfied and emotionally moved.

Negatives: I am not sure if there are any! Centering on a young girl, it may not be interesting to males, but it was written by one.

Rating: 4.5 - this was a great book

The Rossetti Letter - Christi Phillips

This book was one of my random library pickups. The title caught me and luckily the synopsis on the jacket flap sounded interesting too.
The story centers around a Venetian courtesan and a modern day woman researching her. With the magnetic backdrop of Venice, there is political intrigue, romance, history hunting, and a bit of suspense.
Although occasionally predictable, I found both the characters and plot enthralling. And as a long-time lover of historical fiction, it fit the bill of interesting and educational. The main character of the 17th century plotline, Alessandra is both loveable and admirable in her independence, maybe almost unrealisiticly so. On the other hand, Claire of the modern day, was not quite as undearing, but not so much that she was too annoying to bearable to me.
The narrative style of the two storylines interspersed was executed moderately well. Toward the beginning, there were many points that I wished she would not go back to Claire as the storyline was a lot less interesting, but as the novel continued it got more interesting and was not as frustrating.
A mild disclaimer: this book is about a courtesan so beware of adult themes and couple explicit passages, but there really are only two.

Positives: I was able to get into the plot and feel deeply about the characters. I would definitely be able to call it a page-turner. Also, it gave me a very good idea of the setting of Venice and made it very attractive.

Negatives: A few disjointed and seemingly random occurances in modern plot line. Also, some times of dragging and uninteresting story. A couple unrealistic moments that almost seemed silly. Definitely all things that did not stand out to me after finishing it.

Rating: 4 - this was a good book.

A Wedding in December - Anita Shreve

I had seen this author for quite a while but this was her first book I ended up picking up at the library. The basic premise is a handful of classmates get together after not seeing each other in twenty-seven years for the wedding of two of them. The weekend is full of regrets, unfinished business, and secrets.
I found this book to not be quite as captivating as expected. The author's main attempt at suspense, the circumstances surrounding the death of one of their classmates during their senior year, was pretty fully revealed early on. The confessions that finally happened at the "climax" of the novel were very simple to guess at.
One of the biggest themes of this book is regret, a what-if mentality, and therefore infidelity. I feel as though the author wanted me to truly empathize and rationalize with the characters who were involved in some sort of extramarital affair, but she did not succeed.
I found her narrative style interesting; weaving the plot in with another that was being written by one of the characters. At the beginning, the secondary plot felt incongruous and made me wish she would just "get back to the real story." However, at the end as both of the stories were wrapping up, they began to come together and I ended up feeling almost more emotionally moved by the "fake" story. Overall, for me, it lacked the emotion that she had probably intended.
A sidenote, I found it ironic that the story is set in December of 2001 and 9/11 is mentioned multiple times, while I read it over the eighth anniversary of the date. The emotion of 9/11 was portrayed well, however it was only thrown in occasionally.

Positives: the characters were believable, I have as clear a picture of them all as I would had I seen the movie

Negatives: at the end, I felt as though I had just read a 150 page book not a 300 page one, I suppose there was not enough plot for me; I was unable to empathize with the characters

Rating: 3.5 - it was ok, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Ratings

Here is a little description of my current system for ratings. I am doing a five-star method and also use halves.

• 1 - I wish I hadn't read it
• 2 - Not the best thing I've read
• 3 - Okay, but I wouldn't recommend it
• 4 - This was a good book
• 5 - This is one of my all-time favorites
  

Those give me a good idea of where it should be based on my feelings. Also, I have rated most every book I have read so I also rate by comparison. Was this book as good as that one? Worse?
I try to not artificially inflate the ratings, so although I know there are some awful books out there, I can only rate in relation to what I have read.

As always, feel free to disagree with any rating I give!

Introduction

Welcome to my blog! I'm hoping to use this as a way to share my thoughts and reviews of the books I read.

I've been an avid reader for years, which has only increased since completing my 16 years of education and am no longer required to read anything. You will find that I do not have the most refined taste in literature. I do not like Dickens and I have never read Tolstoy. However I will read many things from romance to classics, children's books, and fantasy.
I promise never to ruin an ending, keep an open mind, and give any book a try.

Thanks for reading with me!