April Reading
15. The Other Boleyn Girl
by Philippa Gregory
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 661
16. The Abstinence Teacher
by Tom Perrotta
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 358
17. The Boleyn Inheritance
by Philippa Gregory
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 516
18. The Dogs of Babel
by Carolyn Parkhurst
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 261
This month, I was introduced to the addictive guilty pleasure of historical fiction by the two Philippa Gregory novels, The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance. The Other Boleyn Girl is the better of the two novels, and I just happened to stumble across it in the paperback exchange store.
I haven't seen the movie, but the trailer of the movie seemed to imply that the movie takes the liberty of having both sisters fight over the love of the king. In the book, Mary is forced into being the king's mistress to improve her family's status and Anne wants the king to satisfy her own hunger for power. The books made the time period come alive for me in the way that the dull, just the facts, non-fiction historical novels that I've read have not. If anyone else is a fan of historical fiction, I'd love some recommendations.
I enjoyed The Abstinence Teacher, and it didn't frustrate me the way the ending of Little Children did, but I do think that Tom Perrotta is somewhat overrated. I don't find him quite as funny or as sharp as he is billed as being.
The Dogs of Babel is a book that I've read before and that I really love. Paul's wife, Lexy, has died under mysterious circumstances with their dog as the only witness. Trapped under the weight of terrible guilt and grief, Paul decides the solution is to teach their dog to talk so he can find out what happened the day Lexy died. The premise sounds incredibly ridiculous, and I avoided this book for a while because of it, but Parkhurst makes it work and the book is a beautiful, well-written love story. I feel like people who liked The Time-Traveler's Wife would also like this book.
by Philippa Gregory
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 661
16. The Abstinence Teacher
by Tom Perrotta
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 358
17. The Boleyn Inheritance
by Philippa Gregory
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 516
18. The Dogs of Babel
by Carolyn Parkhurst
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 261
This month, I was introduced to the addictive guilty pleasure of historical fiction by the two Philippa Gregory novels, The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance. The Other Boleyn Girl is the better of the two novels, and I just happened to stumble across it in the paperback exchange store.
I haven't seen the movie, but the trailer of the movie seemed to imply that the movie takes the liberty of having both sisters fight over the love of the king. In the book, Mary is forced into being the king's mistress to improve her family's status and Anne wants the king to satisfy her own hunger for power. The books made the time period come alive for me in the way that the dull, just the facts, non-fiction historical novels that I've read have not. If anyone else is a fan of historical fiction, I'd love some recommendations.
I enjoyed The Abstinence Teacher, and it didn't frustrate me the way the ending of Little Children did, but I do think that Tom Perrotta is somewhat overrated. I don't find him quite as funny or as sharp as he is billed as being.
The Dogs of Babel is a book that I've read before and that I really love. Paul's wife, Lexy, has died under mysterious circumstances with their dog as the only witness. Trapped under the weight of terrible guilt and grief, Paul decides the solution is to teach their dog to talk so he can find out what happened the day Lexy died. The premise sounds incredibly ridiculous, and I avoided this book for a while because of it, but Parkhurst makes it work and the book is a beautiful, well-written love story. I feel like people who liked The Time-Traveler's Wife would also like this book.