An ideal wife should have Meekness, Patience, Sincerity, Prudence, Zeal ...

I fell in love with Lauren Thatcher Ulrich a couple of years ago when I read her Pulitzer Prize-winning book about a colonial midwife, A Midwife's Tale.  Immediately, I purchased Good Wives:  Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England 1650-1750.  I just finished Good Wives last night and let me tell you, it is just as fascinating as A Midwife's Tale.

Good Wives has a subtitle that is quite descriptive but still only hints at its details and depths.  In the introduction to this book, Ulrich mentions a gravestone that says a woman was "Eminent for Holiness, Prayerfulness, Watchfulness, Zeal, Prudence, Sincerity, Humility, Meekness, Patience, Weanedness from ye World, Self-denial, Publik-Spiritedness, Diligence, Faithfulness and Charity."

Nowadays, we would think this woman was either a) not real or b) really boring.  But Ulrich points out that in the 17th and 18th centuries, people did not try to be individuals, but to conform and be ideal.  "A good wife earned the dignity of anonymity," Ulrich says, and then she sets out in her book to show readers exactly what a "good wife" was - a loving mother, an obedient wife, and a kind neighbor.  And she also shows us what happens when women strayed from those norms, for good and bad reasons, and what the consequences were.  It is a fascinating study about a population that did not leave much behind to describe their lives to us.

Musings: 1493 - Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

I read and loved Charles C. Mann's 1491:  New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, so when I heard that Mann had a companion book out, I was very excited to get my hands on it.  1493 in some ways picks up where 1491 left off, except that it dramatically increases the scope of the research.  Instead of focusing on the Americas, Mann gives detailed accounts of how the Columbian Exchange impacted the entire world.  Yes, the Europeans brought disease and took tobacco, but that is just one tiny piece of a colossal whole.  As in his previous book, Mann gives us a spectacular perspective on the continuing effects of what happened- "nothing less than the forming of a single new world from the collision of two old worlds..."

Often when we are taught history, we are taught in silos.  "This is what happened in Europe at this time.  This is what they were doing in India then.  In the US, they were dealing with something totally separate."  What I most appreciated about 1493 was that Mann brought all of these histories together and made clear just how intricately they were connected.  Silver mined in South America by African slaves was minted in the Spanish empire, but 80 to 90 percent of it went to China.  These are links that textbooks rarely make, and it was amazing to see just how global the world has been for so long.  And just how completely our world changed when the Americas were discovered.

Musings: The Kings' Mistresses

I am le tired of non-fiction books with titles that misrepresent the actual content that resides inside aforementioned books.  The Kings' Mistresses:  The Liberated Lives of Marie Mancini, Princess Colonna, and Her Sister Hortense, Duchess Mazarin by Elizabeth Goldsmith is one of those books.  (Rule of thumb:  If a non-fiction title is really long and has lots of "spark" words like mistress and liberated, it is probably lying to you.)

The Mancini sisters were fascinating, beautiful women that are worthy of biography, BUT... they were not particularly "liberated," nor were both of them mistresses of kings.  Hortense was mistress to Charles II of England, but I don't think Marie was mistress to anyone, though she was Louis XIV of France's first love. (But was she also his mistress?  I did not get that sense from the text, but Perhaps.  I.  Am.  Really.  Dense.)

The Mancinis were sisters who were lucky enough to be nieces to probably the richest man in Europe in the mid-17th century, Cardinal Mazarin.  The Cardinal introduced them to the French court, they dazzled with their beauty and wit, men fell all over themselves vying for their hands, and Cardinal Mazarin unerringly matched both with two men entirely unsuitable to the girls' personalities.

Review: I, Coriander

Title: I, Coriander

Author: Sally Gardner

Publisher: Dial Books

# of Pages: 287

Plot Summary:
Coriander grows up in a cheerful, happy home with parents who love each other and her and a nanny/maid who is kind, protective and friendly. This happy life begins to fall apart, though, when Coriander receives a pair of silver shoes for her sixth birthday, puts them on, and is transported to a faerie realm. She is only there a short while, but when she returns, bad things start happening. The King of England- Charles I- is beheaded and the Puritan regime takes over. Her family is royalist and life becomes dangerous for them. Her beloved mother passes away, and her father remarries a horrible woman for political purposes. But then he must leave the country, being a royalist, and Coriander is left with her evil stepmother and her stepmother's friend Arise Fell with little help from those around her. And when she accidentally returns to the faerie realm, she finds that things there aren't going so well, either. Coriander must somehow overcome all the difficulties facing her to save her father, her mother's memory, and the realm of Faerie.

Wow, for a short children's novel, this one has quite the plotline! I left out some key characters and side plots above, too. I think I'm still not sure how much information to put into plot summaries. I try to put as little as possible to get the plot across, as I don't want to ruin the story for potential readers. But then I feel as though I am leaving out crucial information, too! Not sure I have the balance right yet.

I really enjoyed Sally Gardner's book The Red Necklace. I did not like its sequel The Silver Blade quite as much, and I think I like I, Coriander even less. That's not to say I dislike I, Coriander. I just don't think much is holding up to The Red Necklace. I had pretty high expectations!

I think some of the plots in this book were oversimplified or glanced over. I don't think the fact that it's a children's novel can really be used as an excuse, either, as there are many excellent children's novels that have complexity and depth. The main one that seems to have upset most readers is Coriander's father's decision to marry, and then to escape England for the continent, leaving his daughter with a woman he knew was a horror. The love that existed between Coriander's mother and father was obvious and really touching, through the first parts of the story. So it was a bit jarring when he remarried, and when he chose someone so horrible. Perhaps he was enchanted into doing it, but afterward, when he left England for the safety of France, he could have taken his daughter with him. It seemed callous and very out-of-character for him to just leave her behind.

I also would have preferred more time in the Faerie realm, but I guess that's just my personal taste. I think stories that involve that whole alternate reality of Faerie, with people who never age, and balls and sinister villains who seem so nice but draw you in... they're fabulous. I love them. However, Coriander doesn't spend all that much time in Faerie, just brief snatches, and that saddened me.

I think Gardner did a good job of portraying England under the rule of Oliver Cromwell. While the Puritan faction was portrayed very negatively, I think she captured the underlying tension and fear of ordinary citizens very well. They were all nervous about how people would perceive them, and were trying very hard to just get by, regardless of the political climate. I like that Gardner didn't talk down to her audience on this point, but let them see the confusion 17th century England for what it was. It would be interesting, I think, to see how all those Royalists reacted to Charles II's behavior :-)

I think this was a good Read-a-Thon pick for me because it was pretty light reading and had a fast-moving plot. Also, the font was nice and big :-) I don't know that I would recommend it without reservation; if you want to try Sally Gardner, I would recommend The Red Necklace instead of this one. But if you want a feel for Cromwellian England, with a bit of Faerie dust thrown in, then this might be a good pick.

Review: The Tsar's Dwarf

Title: The Tsar's Dwarf

Author: Peter F. Fogtdal, trans. Tiina Nunnally

Publisher: Hawthorne Books

# of Pages: 286

I received this book for free to review.

I did not finish reading this book.

Product Description

Soerine, a deformed female dwarf from Denmark, is given as a gift to Tsar Peter the Great, who is smitten by her freakishness and intellect. Against her will, the Tsar takes Soerine to St. Petersburg, where she becomes a jester in his court. There, she lives a life that both compels and repels her. Soerine eventually gives in to the attentions of Lukas, the Tsar’s favorite dwarf, and carves out an existence for herself amidst the squalor and lice-ridden world of dwarfs in the early 18th century. In this inhospitable milieu, Soerine’s intelligence and detached wit provide her some small measure of protection — until disaster strikes in the shape of a priest who wants to “save” her.

I waited some time to write the review of this book because I wasn't sure if it would be a DNF or not. The author e-mailed me multiple times, assuring me that I would love it if I'd only accept a copy to review, that once I received it, I would drop all other books to read this one.

That isn't exactly how it played out, but I admit that Fogtdal's gumption certainly intrigued me. So I picked the book up to read. It's a very nicely-made book. It has very bright white pages, so the text stands out and is easy to read. It has front and back flaps so that you don't need a bookmark, but can mark your page with the bookcover itself. It is also a good size- very easy to carry.

The story, though, didn't catch my attention in the way I thought it would. It centers around a 17th century Danish dwarf, Sorine, who is quite cynical in her view of the world due to the horrible way she has been treated her whole life. We spend the entirety of the book (well, at least the first 120 pages that I read) in her head, which is not a very pleasant place. She is haunted by ghosts from her past and she has a pretty large chip on her shoulder. But she is still, somehow, sympathetic.

I'm not really sure why I can't finish this book. But every time I picked it up to read, I tried to find something else to do instead. I would stare at the same page for minutes. I felt like the story involved a lot of people with names I couldn't pronounce and I couldn't keep them straight in my head. Also, I know very little about the history of Denmark and Russia, so the historical context was confusing for me, too. While Sorine is a compelling and interesting character, I didn't much care for anyone else in the novel.

So really- I think maybe if I felt more invested in the story, then I would have been able to finish it. If I felt that I cared for the characters or engaged in the plot, then maybe I'd go on. But... I just don't, and I am not one to force my way through a book that I don't really enjoy. I do think that others could very likely enjoy this one, though, so if the story premise interests you- give it a whirl :-)

Today Kate Grenville's The Lieuetenant came for me to review from Amazon. I was absolutely blown away by her book The Secret River, so I am moving on to the next book on my list to read.