Ah, Ken Follett. Writer of decent spy books, and sweeping historic epic novels. I have no idea how he gets these things done, they’re so bloody huge. So, this is the first of what Follett is calling the “Century Trilogy.” It follows five families through the 20th century, this book covers 1911 through 1924. We’ve got World War I, the Russian Revolution, women’s suffrage, mining strikes, and also just general life stuff like unwed mothers, gays, and religion. The families come from Wales (the poor, […]
What goes up. . . .
This book deserves a better-written review than it’s going to receive from me, since I read it at the beginning of the year, didn’t write a review, and now it’s December 30th. My own damn fault. This is the sequel to Wolf Hall, the story of the rise of Thomas Cromwell (and, at about the same time, Anne Boleyn). The king and Cromwell are staying with the Seymours at their home, Wolf Hall (which made me wonder why the first book was called that, since […]
Eleanor & Marianne & Sigmund?
So I had to try this one after doing the P&P&Z trilogy last year. The whole Quirk Book thing has been hit or miss, and this one was a miss for me. Part of what I liked about the first P&P&Z book was how seamlessly the zombie story was integrated with Austen’s original. Not so much with this book. The story took us too far away from the original, putting the Dashwoods in ridiculous peril, pitting them against the entire undersea world (rivers, lakes, everything […]
Christmas with the Darcys
This is subtitled: “a holiday tribute to Jane Austen,” and is written by some of the more prolific (or at least high-profile) Austen adjacent writers. Amanda Grange does the “diary” books (Mr. Darcy, Captain Wentworth, Colonel Brandon, Edmund Bertram, Henry Tilney, etc. I’ve read a few of them, and they’re pretty good). I haven’t read any of Sharon Lathan’s books, they look more like romancey type stuff that I don’t really enjoy). Not sure who Carolyn Eberhart is. Eberhart’s contribution is “Mr. Darcy’s Christmas Carol,” written […]