The Life of Elizabeth I

From the book cover

Perhaps the most influential sovereign England has ever known, Queen Elizabeth I reigned prosperously for more than forty years, from 1558 until her death in 1603. During her rule, however, she remained an extremely private person, keeping her own counsel and sharing secrets with no one - not even her closest, most trusted advisors.

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I selected this novel as part of my biographies and memories reading list because of my fascination with the monarchy.

This book is way too long. Alison Weir does a wonderful job capturing Queen Elizabeth I's personality, the mood of her court and the high and low points of her reign, but I really feel like it could have been done in under 300 pages. At 488 pages, not including the epilogue, this is a hefty brick of a novel.

It's obvious that Ms. Weir is a meticulous researcher and a born storyteller. This novel reads like a historical fiction. She did a great job of drawing out suspenseful moments and interjecting humour. It's even more amazing because she's writing about someone who's been dead for more than 400 years as though she was right there witnessing everything. I especially enjoyed the chapters that describe the everyday realities of life in the 1500s.

At times I found it hard to keep up with the name changes. Once a character received a new office or title, Ms. Weir started referring to the character by a new name. An example of this is William Cecil, Elizabeth's most loyal councillor. He goes from being referred to as Cecil to Burghley about midway through the novel, when he gets promoted by the Queen. Then three quarters of the way through, his son arrives at the court and so we start reading about 'Cecil' again, but now Weir is referring to Thomas Cecil, William Cecil/Lord Burghley's son.

Elizabeth was a great queen but I don't like Elizabeth the women. She was vain, superficial, manipulative, mean, selfish and sometimes just plain unrealistic in her expectations of her subjects. The amount of people that she placed in the tower for daring to marry without her consent is shameful. And then there's the way she treated the wives of her 'favourites', refusing to acknowledge their existence, humiliating them at court and purposely keeping their husbands away from home. For the record, I think it's cool that she refused to marry and stuck to her convictions.


Eventually I would like to read Ms. Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII.

3.5/5

Trailer from The Golden Age starring Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I.

Bob Marley: The Untold Story

From the book cover

What was is about Bob Marley that made him so popular in a world dominated by rock ‘n’ roll? How is it that he not only has remained the single most successful reggae artist ever, but also has become a shining beacon of radicalism and peace to generation after generation of fans?

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Bob Marley is the most well-known of my countrymen, so when I saw this biography in Coles I didn't think twice about picking it up. Usually, I read books recommended by friends, family members or acquaintances. This book was chosen solely because I've always enjoyed Bob Marley's music and wanted to find out who he really was.

Chris Salewicz's writing style is dreadful (no pun intended). His bridging techniques are awkward at best and he litters the story with too much insignificant information. An example of this is the background information he provides for virtually all of the major and minor characters in Bob's life. Every time he introduces a character he tells the reader where and when the person was born and who their parents were, how they grew up and all sorts of other useless information.

When Salewicz isn't bombarding the reader with useless information, he's repeating facts and quotes every few chapters. There's almost a feeling that this book might have be written over several years.

Despite my issues with Salewicz's writing style, I have to admit that this biography does provide some really great information about Jamaica, the history of reggae, and of course Bob Marley. If nothing else, Chris Salewicz is a great researcher.

Thanks to the information about the history of reggae, there's handful of albums that I will be seeking to add to my collection.

3.5/5

*UPDATE*
It's been about a month since I read this novel and only now is the affect of everything I learned about Bob Marley becoming apparent. Prior to reading this book, I could listen to all of Bob Marley's songs all the time and anytime. Now I'm having a hard time listening to some of them because I know the story behind them. I'm repulsed by the ones written about his mistresses, especially Waiting in Vain, because they remind me of how poorly he treated his wife (He flaunted his relationship with other women in front of her and at one point denied their marriage). It's hard to separate the man from the musician. 

Angela's Ashes

From the book cover

“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”

So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy – exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling – does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.

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I'm starting to wonder if there is something wrong with me. I didn't shed a single tear while reading Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes. I didn't laugh either. I was impressed by his bravery in leaving nothing unsaid. The details of his impoverished childhood are painful and it's easy to see how embarrassing his situation would have been at the time, but what gets me is his honesty when describing the joy he got from masturbating. I could have done with less info about him "interfering" with himself.

I found myself annoyed with Frank's mother, Angela. She came across as a lazy whiner. I know times were tough, I get that. But she just seemed to spend too much time complaining about things. It took her forever to cross her legs and say no more kids. She was always threatening to go to work but didn't until the end of the novel. She often sent her kids to the pubs to do what she should have been doing - confronting her husband about drinking the money that was meant to feed the kids. The last straw for me was when she moved in with Frank and The Abbott and started taking the money Frank was earning from his messenger job.

There's much hype about Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes. I chose to read it because it is suppose to be one of the best memoirs ever published. It won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, the 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 1997 Boeke Prize. I don't know if it lives up to all that hype.

McCourt’s childhood is definitely miserable, but doesn’t it take more than misery to make a book awesome? There's no denying that Angela’s Ashes is solid work in its genre, but it just left me feeling blah.  It didn’t elicit any strong emotion. It's just like every other book about people living unfortunate lives.

Some criticism of the book is that the poverty McCourt describes in Limerick is “overdone.” For his part, McCourt has said that the book is not meant to be an exact history.

 3.5/5

Movie Trailer for the film adaptation of Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes.

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance is a memoir written by United States President Barack Obama.

In 453 pages, Mr. Obama brings us through his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia, his work as a community organizer in Chicago’s south side and a trip to Kenya. He very briefly describes his time at Harvard Law School, his courtship and marriage to Michelle and a second trip to Kenya.

I really, really enjoyed this novel. Mr. Obama’s struggle to find answers in a racially polarized America is probably familiar to many black youth growing up in North America. As I read through several passages, I found myself shaking my head in agreement or recognition of a situation that is reminiscent of an experience I have lived through.

This memoir really humanized Mr. Obama for me. I’ve been a fan every since he hit the international stage, during his campaign for the democratic leadership. (I really struggled with who to root for. I’m a Hillary Clinton fan, but at last I had to support my black brother.) Anyways, back to the memoir.

Mr. Obama’s characteristic eloquence made this novel an enjoyable read. He recreates scenes, analyzes situations and shares his feeling without pretension. I felt like he was sitting across the table sharing his story with me. I didn’t have to reach for the dictionary too often. His story is so absorbing, it almost doesn’t seem real. Two or three times, I found myself wishing for a sequel from the perspective of one of the secondary characters. I would love to learn more about Ruth (Obama’s father’s third wife), and Obama's paternal grandmother.

In this novel, Mr. Obama demonstrate his ability to analyze both sides of issues without letting emotions cloud his judgment. It could have been very easy to have several ‘bad’ guys in this true story, yet there are very few.

Mr. Obama is very brave to write so honestly about his family’s history. It’s not all roses. Once the facts are laid bare, Mr. Obama’s father is revealed to be a near-do-good, adulterous, alcoholic with high ideals and no staying power (he goes through many families before his premature death as a result of a car accident).

This book was written and published after Obama graduated from Harvard Law School, where he made history as the first black editor of The Harvard Review. That’s about 10 years before he entered politics. I wonder if the story would have changed any, had he realized that one day he would be the President of the United States.

5

The Secret Adversary

From the book cover
Hiring themselves out as "young adventurers willing to do anything" proves to be a smart move for Tommy and Tuppence. The first job sounds likes a dream. All Tuppence has to do is take an all-expense-paid trip to Paris and pose as an American name Jane Finn. But with the assignment comes a bribe to keep quiet, a threat to her life, and the disappearance of her new employer. Now Tuppence's newest job is playing detective - because if there's a "Jane Finn" that really exists, she's got a secret that's putting both their lives in danger.
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The Secret Adversary is Agatha Christie's second novel and my second Agatha Christie novel. I'm trying to read all of her novels in order of publication. So far, I think it's going to be a pleasurable challenge.

Young Adventurers Tommy and Tuppence are super cute and lots of fun. I really hope Dame Christie has a few more novels about this young couple.

The Secret Adversary is completely different from Dame Christie's first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Set in London, England shortly after the first world war, money is in short supply for many young people, including Tommy and Tuppence. To earn some cash, T&T decide to form Young Adventurers, an adventure/spy agency.

Coincidences abound as T&T find themselves working for the government to try to track down Jane Finn and some important documents that were in-trusted to her five years earlier on board the sinking Lusitania. While trying to track Jane Finn the young adventurers must also work against the mysterious Mr. Brown, who appears to be one of the main characters. Rather than the typical whodunit, the reader must figure out where is Jane Finn and who is Mr. Brown.

T&T's youthfulness, combined with the colourful colloquial language Dame Christie employs in the characters' direct speech make this novel a hoot. It's not at all realistic, but who needs realism when you've got a cast of international characters fighting over England's political future.

3/5

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

From the book cover

Set in Essex in the English countryside, The Mysterious Affair at Styles is one of the great classic murder mysteries. The victim, Mrs. Emily Inglethorp, is the wealthy mistress of Styles Court. After an evening of entertaining family and guests, she is found poisoned in her locked bedroom. The long list of suspects include her gold-digging new husband, her stepsons, her best female friend, and a visiting doctor. As luck would have it, a brilliant, if rather eccentric, detective is among the company at Styles. Here, in her first published mystery, Agatha Christie introduces us to her beloved Belgian protagonist, inspector Hercule Poirot, who methodically pieces together the intricate evidence of this bewildering crime. From his very first appearance, Poirot amuses us with his oddly fastidious habits - then astonishes us with the power of his razor-sharp mind. Christie keeps us guessing as to the murderer's identity until Poirot finally present his ingenious solution to this landmark mystery. And, voila, one of the genre's most famous sleuths is born.
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The Mysterious Affair at Styles is my first Agatha Christie novel and the first novel she published. I'm hoping to read all of her novels in order of their publication dates.

This classic whodunit reminds me of a Murder, She Wrote and Columbus mysteries. It's a nice easy read with lots of little twists and turns so the reader thinks they have solved the mystery at several points.

I enjoyed reading this novel, despite my lukewarm feeling towards the narrator, Mr.Hastings. He claims to have an interest in one day becoming a detective yet he has absolutely no instinct. He is just slightly more clued in than Inspector Gadget. He came across as being a bit too naive. And, Hercule Poirot came across as the typical detective.

I feel like I've read this book before... will this feeling continue as I make my way through Agatha Christie's collection?

I recommend this novel to anyone looking for a light read.

3/5

The Midwife of Venice

From the book cover
Hannah Levi is known throughout sixteenth-century Venice for her skill in midwifery. But when a Christian nobleman appears at her door in the Jewish ghetto, imploring her to help his wife who is dying in childbirth, Hannah's compassion is tested. Not only is it illegal for Jews to render medical treatment to Christians, it's punishable by torture or death.
Yet Hannah finds she cannot refuse the chance to make more money than she's ever seen in her whole life. With such a handsome sum, she could save her husband, Isaac, who months earlier was captured at sea and forced into slavery in Malta by the Knights of St. John. Aided by her forbidden "birthing spoons" - rudimentary forceps she invented to coax reluctant babies out of their mothers' wombs - Hannah agrees to assist the nobleman and attend to his ailing wife and child. Will she be able to save the mother and the baby? And if she does, will she also be able to save herself?
Woven through Hannah's travails in Venice is the story of Isaac and his life as a slave in Malta. Fearing that Hannah has perished in the plague, he pins whatever hopes he has of returning home to her on his talent for writing love letters that melt even the hardest of hearts.
The Midwife of Venice is an enthralling historical adventure and a gloriously satisfying tale about midwifery, motherhood, and the lengths to which one good woman will go for love.
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Novels like The Midwife of Venice reaffirm my view that historical fiction is the most compelling genre.

This action-packed tale of love, religion and compassion is a quick read at 329 pages. What I like most about this novel is Roberta Rich's treatment of the opposing societies of 1575 Venice. Rich exposes the hypocrisy of both the Christian and Jewish communities and the bravery of three very different types of women: Hannah the Jewish midwife, Lucia the Christian noblewoman and Jessica, Hannah's sister who is now a courtesan and converted Christian.

Although the Jews are at a disadvantage in 16th century Venice, Rich does not portray them as being all innocence. In fact, Hannah and Isaac's Rabbi is depicted as a mean-spirited and duplicitous man in an unhappy marriage, who is most concerned with making his flock follow his orders rather than helping them to live honest and fulfilling lives. He refuses to pay Isaac's ransom unless he divorces Hannah despite previously telling Hannah that Isaac's ransom would be paid.

The Catholics don't fare much better. Asunta, the Catholic nun who purchases Isaac at the slave auction in Malta quickly sells him to Joseph, a cruel slave owner whom she admits will most likely work Isaac to death, after Isaac refuses to convert to Catholicism. She is cruel and hypocritical. After Isaac refuses to convert, she makes him pull her in a cart, like a horse to town so that she can sell him to Joseph. Before leaving the convent Isaac asks her to hold on to silkworm eggs for him. Once she realizes how valuable the eggs could be for the convent she refuses to return them to Isaac.

Despite the easy-read and the vivid descriptions, there are some holes in the plot. The Conte is suppose to be a wise man yet he can't see what's under his nose. His brothers don't want him to have a heir. They want the estate to fall into their hands so they can cover the debts they've incurred from reckless living. There's even some hinting that his brother's might be responsible for the death of other kids the countess has borne who died mysteriously in early infancy. Plus, it doesn't add up that the count and countess would labour so long for a child and then leave him unguarded to go off to see her ill father. They have more than enough money to secure a wet nurse and the most comfortable accommodations during their travels.

In regards to Isaac's storyline, why would the Knights of St. John sell him to someone that might work him to death if they plan on ransoming him?

At the end of the day, despite the plot gaps, The Midwife of Venice is one of the best historical fictions I've read in a while.

4/5