Books I Read in May...
1. The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan
2. The Queen’s Sorrow by Suzannah Dunn
3. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
4. Mistress by Anita Nair
5. Taj Mahal: Passion and Genius at the Heart of the Moghul Empire by Diana and Michael Preston
6. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
7. The Lady in the Tower by Alison Weir
8. The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama
9. Lost States by Michael Trinklein
10. The Bird Biographies of John James Audubon, edited by Alice Ford
11. The Boleyn Wife by Brandy Purdy
12. The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King by James Patterson
13. Breakfast at Tiffany’s: A short novel and three stories by Truman Capote
Commentary below cut!
1. The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan - I picked up her novel "Feast of Roses," which comes after this novel. I've been looking for this one for a while, and it didn't disappoint. Sundaresan has picked up on that magical ability to bring historical figures to life without making her novel into a history of Jahangir's reign.
2. The Queen’s Sorrow by Suzannah Dunn - Surprisingly, I liked this one a lot. Dunn's Tudor novels have very misleading titles - I thought this one would be about Queen Mary, but it was written from the perspective of a minor nobleman in King Philip's entourage having trouble adjusting to his life in England, wanting to go back so badly to his young son. The book drags over the nobleman's recollections of his sexual adventures, but really blossoms as he adjusts to life with a widow and her son, becoming her confidante, and finally making the unwise choice to trust the Queen with his friend's secret.
3. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake - This was also a captivating novel. I'm sure a lot of people have read it already, but I'll add my two cents. "The Postmistress" is an intriguing enough title, but I thought "The War Correspondent" would be more appropriate, since Frankie Bard's portion of the tale was the most gripping. I did love the parallels - the woman who couldn't stop telling others what she saw, trying to spur them to action, the woman whose job it was to help others communicate, who makes an exception to spare someone pain.
4. Mistress by Anita Nair - I loved her last novel, "Ladies' Coupe," and this was kind of...meh. The tale of the dancer's distant family is intriguing enough, and reminds me a bit of "Q&A." After 400 or so pages, though, it drags, and never reaches a satisfying conclusion.
5. Taj Mahal: Passion and Genius at the Heart of the Moghul Empire by Diana and Michael Preston - A nice examination of one of the world's most beautiful buildings, the history, the romance, the myths that sprang up around it in its wake.
6. The Help by Kathryn Stockett - Again, what can I say? Only that this was a novel I gobbled down in about two days. I would recommend the audiobook - the actors are very talented, and have the proper accents that give so much heart to the narrative. Oh, and I love Minny.
7. The Lady in the Tower by Alison Weir - Weir does a forensic examination of the documents and events surrounding the trial and execution of Queen Anne Boleyn, her brother, and their friends. I do like seeing Weir take some historians to task for apologetic stances on some figures, but her conclusions were quite interesting. She (and I agree with her on this, lack of a historical doctorate notwithstanding) concludes that Queen Anne's execution was the result of a political coup launched by Cromwell at a time when she was particularly vulnerable. She is gentler on King Henry VIII, who she writes likely honestly believed that Anne had committed adultery. While she states that it's extremely unlikely that Anne committed adultery, she doesn't rule out that Anne might have had some misdoings, based on her comments from when she entered the Tower. Myself, I believe that even if Cromwell hadn't taken advantage of Anne's situation, Henry eventually would have had something trumped up, and had her deposed.
8. The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama - Okay, if a little boring and way-too-convenient in some plot twists. An interesting look at how some folks get married, and how others look at marriage.
9. Lost States by Michael Trinklein - A waste of interesting subject matter. Trinklein is light on history, and overly heavy on glib commentary.
10. The Bird Biographies of John James Audubon, edited by Alice Ford - Read this. These observations of birds not only lend insight into the birds' behavior, but into Audubon's character. His stories of some encounters are hilarious, like the golden eagle that attacked a friend who was being lowered by two ropes over a cliff. In using a knife to try and keep the bird from killing him, the man accidentally severed one of the ropes. Or when Audubon tried to collect a Sandhill Crane on a sandbed, and ended up having to flee back into the water as the outraged bird tried to stab him with its bill. The ruminations on species that are now extinct are particularly poignant, especially since Audubon could see that the populations were in trouble. There's a companion book to this one with Audubon's sketches - there's a reason that the original sold for so much. He brings these birds to life.
11. The Boleyn Wife by Brandy Purdy - Oh, Lord. Where do I begin? Jane Boleyn wasn't a saint, but neither was she a shrieking, crazed demon, the way she is portrayed here. Instead of playing Jane as a wronged woman, Purdy opts for full-on crazy. This Jane gets into knock-down, drag-out fights with her husband's friends in order to tell Anne that Henry is nearly dead (in the hope that it kills Anne), sleeps with Cromwell and bears his bastard, and enjoys a baptism in her husband's blood. Also, Mary Boleyn miscarries on the courtroom floor when Anne is on trial, George and Anne become the Mary Sues of the piece, and little Catherine Howard enjoys a less-than-platonic relationship with Anne of Cleves, complete with a honey-drenched sex scene witnessed by Jane, in which Catherine crows, "I have done what the king could not do! I have ridden the Flemish Mare!" The rest of the novel is Jane watching history go by from behind tapestries and doorways. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
12. The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King by James Patterson - I've never read anything else by Patterson, though I'm aware he's a prolific and well-read author. The way he inserts himself into the story, though, is laughable in the extreme.
13. Breakfast at Tiffany’s: A short novel and three stories by Truman Capote - I've read most of the novel, but I took the time to read it fully, along with a few short stories. Actually, more than Breakfast at Tiffany's, I enjoyed "A Christmas Memory," because I'd read it as a child, but couldn't remember who wrote it. It is one of the most delicately evocative, sensory pieces I've ever read.