Imagine that. Sarah is reading historical fiction ;)
I started the month with the Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. This is the very first book I got through my paperback book swap site - and, that was in 2008.
The book is about a cadre of literary famous folks in the late 1800's Boston. While not in New York, this is my favorite time period for fiction, so I definitely enjoyed the book's feel. The group, which includes Longfellow and other poets, is working on translating the first English version of Dante's Inferno, when Boston is overtaken by murders that seem to be inspired by the poem. Knowing that the group of people who could know of the poem's details is very limited, they work to find the murderer before suspicion falls on them.
This was an interesting read, though I felt the language tried too hard to model that of the time period - it was flowering and stilted. I didn't know who the killer was, but that isn't unusual for me in a mystery. I gave it an ok review on Goodreads.
Next, I picked up Dances with Wolves by Michael Blake.
I stumbled on the book on my site and I honestly didn't know the movie had been based on a novel. Most everyone knows the main story, but I'd never seen the movie, so the details of the story were new to me. I enjoyed the book, even if I pictured Kevin Costner the entire time. I enjoyed learning about the plains Native Americans and the imagery of the grasslands was beautiful, but in the end it was depressing. After I finished the book, I got the movie from the library and didn't enjoy it as much - though, the scenery was gorgeous. The strangest thing about the book is at times, I could tell it was a modern book, writing about the past... It caught my attention in not a great way.
Lastly, I read A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick.
This one has been making the best seller, book club rounds. It is another thriller-esque novel, but also had quite a bit of Midwestern noir to it. It was dark and a bit strange... a story of a woman with a past who becomes a mail order bride for a middle-aged Wisconsin millionaire. I don't want to give any of it away, but it is an intriguing story... And, if I say more, I'll say too much :)
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I started the month with the Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. This is the very first book I got through my paperback book swap site - and, that was in 2008.
This was an interesting read, though I felt the language tried too hard to model that of the time period - it was flowering and stilted. I didn't know who the killer was, but that isn't unusual for me in a mystery. I gave it an ok review on Goodreads.
Next, I picked up Dances with Wolves by Michael Blake.
I stumbled on the book on my site and I honestly didn't know the movie had been based on a novel. Most everyone knows the main story, but I'd never seen the movie, so the details of the story were new to me. I enjoyed the book, even if I pictured Kevin Costner the entire time. I enjoyed learning about the plains Native Americans and the imagery of the grasslands was beautiful, but in the end it was depressing. After I finished the book, I got the movie from the library and didn't enjoy it as much - though, the scenery was gorgeous. The strangest thing about the book is at times, I could tell it was a modern book, writing about the past... It caught my attention in not a great way.Lastly, I read A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick.
This one has been making the best seller, book club rounds. It is another thriller-esque novel, but also had quite a bit of Midwestern noir to it. It was dark and a bit strange... a story of a woman with a past who becomes a mail order bride for a middle-aged Wisconsin millionaire. I don't want to give any of it away, but it is an intriguing story... And, if I say more, I'll say too much :).
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