Sunday... Dinner?

So my loooong period of exams and insane amounts of reading for courses is over! (I'm serious-- just one of my four courses required 300-400 pages of reading per week. Is this normal? I'm a college senior and I've never seen this before, but who cares?!? It's over!) I plan to be around here, posting Gratuitous Pic Spams of lovely period films, reviewing historical books, and generally lolling about the internet as much as poss once again.

I have several important things to catch up on:

I'm going to a ball!

Okay, it's a virtual ball, but I'm still excited, and you're all invited, too!

The Pemberley Ball, hosted by vvb32 reads

It's an Austen-themed extravaganza to celebrate our love of one Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. Come as your chosen, fictional lady (or gent) and enjoy three evenings of fun and chatter with like-minded fans. I will be following the festivities as Duchess du Lac. There will apparently be plenty of Austen-themed giveaways, too! It runs from November 20-22, and you can RSVP right over here.

Thing the second:


The Courtier's Book has received its first award, and from none other than the illustrious Marie Burton over at The Burton Review! Marie runs one of my favorite book review blogs, so this was such a nice surprise for me. Thank you so much, Marie!

Here's how the award works:

• You must pass the award on to 5 other deserving blog friends.
• Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author and the name of the blog from whom he/she has received the award.
• Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
• Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
  
• Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

It has taken me almost a week to get around to this, but I'm really excited to get to mention more of my favorite bloggers-- I highly recommend each and every one:

1. Okbo over at OkboLover-- new, excellent book reviews are up there so often, Okbo puts the rest of us to shame!
2. Julie over at Outlandish Dreaming-- basically, anyone whose blog has a giant picture of Jamie Fraser as their banner is automatically my hero.
3. Robin over at Ups and Downs-- check this one out in particular; she shows you how to replicate modern versions of the beautiful hairstyles we see in our favorite period films.
4. Meghan at Medieval Bookworm-- a new review almost every day, and she even has a specialty in medieval history, so she has a fascinating perspective on historical fic.
5. The Girls at Whitebrook Farm-- umm... true story: I still love the Thoroughbred young adult book series... probably at an unhealthy level. These ladies bring the snark in their recaps and reviews of these and other horse books like it was always meant to be.

So, later this week you can expect a review or two of what I've managed to squeeze in to my insane required reading schedule, beginning with a delightful Georgette Heyer review tomorrow...

Announcing...

Today's Sunday Brunch is dedicated to my Michelle Moran giveaway. Without further ado, the winners are...


Linda and Austenfan!


The publishers will be sending you the books within the next week or so!

And now I would like to wrap-up this exciting week by saying a big THANK YOU to Michelle herself! She reaches out to bloggers like me on her own time to give readers like you great opportunities to learn more about her work, and to possibly win one of her books. She was unflaggingly friendly and generous in every contact I made with her while hosting this special week and giveaway.

Finally, thank YOU, readers, for joining me in this exciting adventure to Ancient Egypt and Rome, and in reading along with me. My first contest on this blog was a lot of fun, and I hope to have more in the future.

Even if you didn't win a book here, you still have the chance for a Michelle Moran book at quite a few other blogs. I will be posting links to some of those that are coming up in the next week, along with more exciting Historical Fiction news and reviews.

Sunday Brunch

Good morning, all and sundry!

Food: Fresh-baked banana loaf, and the ubiquitous coffee

Book at Table: Finishing up Cleopatra's Daughter!

Today marks the first day of the Cleopatra's Daughter celebration week here at The Courtier's Book. Every day I'll post a little something Egypt or Rome themed (the main character of the book, Selene, straddles both worlds), leading up to the giveaway for a copy of Cleopatra's Daughter and Michelle Moran's previous work, The Heretic Queen!

Don't forget to enter the contest HERE if you haven't already done so! This time next week, I'll be posting the winners!

Here's the schedule for the rest of the week:

Monday: My brief-but-awesome interview with Michelle!
Tuesday: What to read next when you've finished Cleopatra's Daughter
Wednesday: Modern Egyptian travel
Thursday: The films of Ancient Egypt (that is, *portraying*, not *from*)
Friday: My review of Cleopatra's Daughter
Saturday: The giveaway contest ends at midnight!
Sunday: Winners announcement!

Sunday Brunch

Food: Quaker oatmeal that I actually cooked over the stove with a little warm milk, some fresh blueberries, and good old Dunkin Donuts coffee.

Book at table: At the King's Command, the recently re-published first book in "The Tudor Rose Trilogy" by Susan Wiggs. And yes, I do read romance novels at breakfast on occasion.

As Fall approaches, I'm a bit nostalgic because it has now been a full year since I returned from my stay in Argentina. I spent last summer living and working in Buenos Aires and I loved every minute of it. Due to my academic and work schedule, I could not fit in a return trip this year, so I browsed for Argentina-related books on my last book shopping excursion.

There are plenty of contemporary and otherwise notable books from and about Argentina:

• Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges. A collection of short stories that is almost without-genre, it is so groundbreaking in its style. I read this before I left for Buenos Aires and was so glad I did. The English translation is quite well-done, too. If I had to classify it, I suppose I might call it surrealist-modern-fantastical-existentialism.
  
• El tunel by Ernesto Sabato. A man contemplates every sort of scenario that might happen, were he to speak to the woman he believes he has fallen in love with. Again, it's very modern, trippy, and fantastic. I was recommended this book while I was abroad and read it quite quickly. It's difficult to find in English.

There does not seem, however, to be a lot of historical fiction that takes place in Argentina. Before my trip, I read Lawrence Thornton's Imagining Argentina, and reeeeally did not like it. The novel is about a man with a psychic ability to "see" the victims of La Guerra Sucia and enable their family members to find the survivors. However, he has a long and difficult road ahead of him in trying to find his own kidnapped wife. The "Dirty War" as we know it in English is a devastatingly sad story on its own, and this novel features quite a few disturbing torture scenes that finally caused me to put it down without finishing it. I know the book has gotten good reviews, but I found the writing to be wooden and some of the factual details to seem skewed.

Other than Thornton's series, however, I could hardly find anything historical fiction-wise regarding Argentina, and I wish there was a lot more.

What historical time period or location seems like it needs further historical fiction writing? What is an "obscure" time period or location that you have read about recently and enjoyed?

Sunday Brunch

Food: Just some Dunkin' Donuts coffee, although that's currently my "everyday" favorite to make!

Book at table: Riders by Jilly Cooper (awesome soapy re-read). Which brings me to my discussion today...

I loved horses long before I loved history, as a subject and as an activity. When I was younger, I read every sort of young adult book and series about kids and horses that I could get my hands on. I collected Bonnie Bryant's The Saddle Club (which eventually numbered in the hundreds, though I had outgrown them by then) and Joanna Campbell's Thoroughbred series, specifically. I read every book that Margeurite Henry (Misty of Chincoteague) ever put out and I probably re-read many of these. I lived too close to a major city to realistically own a horse, so horse stories were my favorite, fantastic vehicle. When the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Racing Championships rolls around in October this year, I am planning a fun week here at The Courtier's Book on racing history.

Fast forward to now, and I'm still reading them. My tastes have changed slightly... I stick to the adult section for the most part. I loved Seabiscuit and Horse Heaven and several romances. Now, however, I also read for educational purposes. While I didn't own my own horse, I did take lessons, and now I'm getting back into the sport of dressage. Just in case you're curious, dressage is descended from the training that horses used to receive in the military. It stretches back all the way to the Greeks as a discipline, and involves perfecting the horse's response to the direction of the rider, conditioning and athleticism, and maneuvering complex changes of pace and speed. It is sometimes called "ballet for horses," because horses often look like they are bouncing and dancing, and the event is occassionally choreographed to music for "freestyle" competitions. If you've ever seen the "White Lipizzaner Stallions" perform, they are doing very high level dressage, involving the "airs above the ground," which include remaining on their hind legs alone for long periods of time, jumping straight into the air from a standstill, and jumping while rearing on command, all of which would have been put to use in ancient battle tactics.

So I'm reading some fun literature and some serious literature on horse sports right now that I picked up from my local library. I have a couple books on basic dressage to get me in the right mindset to restart my lessons, in particular.

A little bit ago, a meme was going around asking what kind of books are particular to you, as a reader. Mine is not probably as obscure as others, but it has turned to riding theory books focusing on dressage.

What is a tinier, specific genre that you're always happy to get a copy of? Are you a history buff of a certain period, character, or event, or is it something else entirely that floats your boat?

Sunday Brunch

Food: Memories of yesterday’s breakfast: what my mother and I fondly refer to as “the best omelets in the world” at a little diner we know.

Book at table: Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. I picked this up at one of my favorite bookstores while on vacation.

Exams went well, and I even got to go on a minibreak, and I’m very happy to return and settle back in with some good reads.

Via the Bookslut blog, I read “Fired from the Canon” by The Second Pass, and in between bouts of wishing I could convey sarcasm and literary commentary as succinctly as they can, I had to agree with a few of their choices. The article lists about a dozen books that they would pick to oust from “required reading” lists, based on their poor quality or modern irrelevance. I mean, I really liked One Hundred Years of Solitude, but I understand how it can be a frustrating and time-consuming read.

If I could remove one book from my memories of required school reading, it would be The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. It’s written in the typical “lyrical prose” of Serious Writers, or as we called it in high school, “What is this? Are they making us read more poetry?” Like James Frey modern writers emulating Hemingway, Cisneros uses short, clipped, repetitive sentences to bore the reader senseless to convey contemporary urban life.

The thing is, I don’t remember much of what happens in this book. I recall a surprising rape scene, thrown into the middle of the jumbled story and never referenced again. I recall some story about “Hairs.” In fact, I don’t think there’s much of a story to it at all. It’s just a sad, sad examination of an impoverished girl growing up amid racism, sexism, and every other sort of horrible thing you could throw at a teenage girl.

The English teachers at my high school really enjoyed teaching this book, but I don’t remember any students who enjoyed reading it. I didn’t feel there was much of a redeeming quality to the book; there is not a commentary so much on society, as there is on the fact that the small society surrounding this girl was really, really horrible to her. In the end, it was an unpleasant read, and I didn’t take anything away from it.

I imagine some people would pick Moby-dick, if their school taught that, though I would venture to say it’s a book I would heartily defend to remain on required reading. It probably helps that I didn’t read it until my senior year in high school, when I was wending my way through "the classics." We also had a teacher who was terrific and really knew how to teach the material, so it was easy for our class to get into reading that immense novel. It’s not even the longest book I’ve ever read by a long shot, but it’s a novel I feel accomplished in saying I read it, and I hope to read it again some day to get even more out of it.

So here’s the Sunday Brunch question for this week:

If you could remove one book from school (elementary, high school, or college) required reading lists, which would you choose, and why?

Look for some historical fiction news and reviews this week, and happy reading!

Sunday Brunch

Location: Barnes & Noble café

Food: House coffee and a cinnamon scone

Book at table: Henry VIII: The Mask of Royalty by Lacey Baldwin Smith (non-fiction, psychological portrait of the later days of Henry VIII, written in the 80s and found in a haphazard stack of used books at an indie bookstore, and I’m loving it)

Sunday mornings are often my favorite moments during the week. It’s just before you have to get started working on things for the coming week, and most people are not yet awake, so there is a quiet freshness to the day. My family often gets together to catch up and relax. And of course, I love coffee almost as much as I love books, so what better way to run a Sunday salon than with plenty of coffee, history geek chatter, and books to review?

Having just begun this blog, I have been reminiscing a lot lately about how I got into historical fiction and realized it was my favorite genre, so I thought I might talk about that today.

The summer before my sophomore year in high school I read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. The interesting thing about this cinder block book is that to modern readers it is historical by virtue of having been written during the late Victorian era, but at the time of its writing it was already historical fiction, since it covers the early Victorian era in revolutionary France. Hugo used history because he could play with more fictional or fantastical elements of a story and thus develop his Romantic style of writing. He wrote about the infinite capabilities and possibilities of humans and individuals, and how those capabilities played out in various societies. In Les Miz, the idealistic university students get quashed by the monarchy. In Notre Dame de Paris (or The Hunchback of Notre Dame in most English translations), the beautiful gypsy Esmeralda is destroyed by the failings of the medieval justice system. So, yes, they’re kind of depressing books, but after reading Les Miz I was entirely intrigued by the vast world of our own history. I had never read much about fictional characters in real worlds and events beyond the Dear America diaries when I was a kid.

I also read Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl that year. Of course, being a teenager, I was swept away by the romance of the Tudor era. Beyond classics (like Les Miz, and Tom Sawyer, and The Catcher in the Rye), it was the first adult book I had ever read. The Tudor era is still one of my favorites to read about, and as you can see above, I am slowly amassing my own, non-fiction Tudor library.

I signed up for the Advanced Placement history classes at my school because, beyond the wonderful worlds of historical fiction, I wanted to know what had really happened. I wanted to know the politics, and the thinking, and what it was like to live in older worlds. I have been taking history classes, reading history books, and learning about the past ever since.

So, today’s Sunday Brunch Question is: How did you first fall in love with historical fiction? Can you remember the first historical fiction novel that you read?