REVIEW: Meridon by Philippa Gregory

Meridon is the conclusion of Philippa Gregory’s Wideacre Trilogy and tells the story of Meridon who has longed all her life for “Wide” a land she has never seen but cannot forget. Meridon grows up living a hard life as a child of gypsies with her “twin sister” Dandy. M has a gift for horses and she and her sister are sold to Robert Gower, a man with a horse show, so her stepfather no longer has to be responsible for them. Robert sees M’s gift with horses and trains her as a horsewoman and develops an aerial act where he trains Dandy and his son Jack as trapeze artists. After tragedy strikes M strikes out on her own and finally stumbles across Wideacre, the place of her dreams but finds herself at odds with the lifestyle of the Quality and how the estate is run.

I liked this one better than book 2 but I still think book 1 was the best of the three. I like that Gregory made Meridon a strong female character like Beatrice was. The only thing that irked me was I kept wondering what happened to some of the minor characters from book 2. It never said what happened to Ralph Megson or to the Haverings that owned Havering Hall beforehand. I felt it would have been a little bit better had this been explained and I also recommend that all the books be read back to back. I did read 2 and 3 back to back but I read the first one 6 months ago and forgot quite a bit of the back-story between then and now.

REVIEW: The Favored Child by Philippa Gregory

Favored Child, the 2nd book in the Wideacre trilogy, continues the story of the Lacey’s of Wideacre. This time the book focuses on Julia and Richard, “cousins” and joint heirs to the Wideacre estate. Unlike Beatrice Lacey in the first book, Julia Lacey was not as strong of a character throughout. Richard was the one hell bent and determined to prove that he is the Favored Child and the rightful squire of Wideacre. This stems from a legend in the village of Acre that only one of them is the true heir of Beatrice who had a special relationship with the estate and could make it grow and prosper.

This book was not nearly as dark as the first one which shocked you repeatedly with its tales of rape, murder and incest, all for the love of the land. This one did have some dark undertones too though.

I had a hard time with Julia being such a wishy washy character, especially when Beatrice Lacey was such a no holds barred one in the last book. I also had a hard time believing that her love for Richard blinded her so much that she couldn’t see how evil he really was. I love Philippa Gregory’s books and although I didn’t like this one as much as Boleyn Girl, Boleyn Inheritance or Queen’s Fool, it was still a pretty good read. I definitely think it had a little bit of “middle book” syndrome though where the 2nd book in a trilogy still manages to progress the story but it just kind of sandwiched in between the 1st and 2nd book and not nearly as good.

REVIEW: The Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Interesting read which tells the story of Griet, a Dutch girl who is sent to live as a servant for the painter Vermeer to earn money for her family after her father is blinded and can no longer work. The Vermeer household features several children, Catharina-the cold mistress of the household, and another servant. Tensions arise when one of the girls takes a dislike to Griet and constantly tries to get her in trouble. She also creates tension when Vermeer recognizes her abilities and tasks her to assist him which creates jealousy among the household and also when she catches the eye of a wealthy customer and must resist his advances. Eventually the only way to appease him is for Griet to sit for a portrait (The Girl with the Pearl Earring).

I like that the focus of the book stayed on Griet and that kept the story simple and enjoyable. There are so many different points of focus the book could have had but I think Chevalier was smart to keep the focus on the protagonist, Griet. In doing this I got a good impression of what it was like to live in Delft and the differences between the classes and how people were expected to act. Its not easy to picture in your mind how characters should be in a time you know nothing about but I felt liked the way the writing and descriptions allowed you to “see” it without it being too much. I also didn’t mind the background story of the butcher’s son vying for Griet’s attention throughout the book. Good description, likeable main character and it made me interested enough to look up some of Vermeer’s work on Wikipedia so I could see for myself the paintings that were discussed in the book.

REVIEW: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I don’t think I have ever read a book that was narrated by Death before. It definitely gave the book an interesting perspective. The Book Thief tells the story of Liesel Meminger who comes to live with the Himmerman family in Nazi Germany after her mother can no longer care for her. Death tells the different times he meets Liesel and how she came to be known as the Book Thief. It also gives a glimpse into how it was to live in Munich during the time of the Nazi’s and also the trials the Himmerman family goes through to hide Max, the Jewish son of Hans Himmermans’ old deceased war buddy, after Hans made a promise to help his widow if she ever needed anything.

If this story were told from the perspective of one of the actual characters (Liesel, Hans, Max, or Rudy-Liesel’s neighbor and best friend) I don’t think the story would have been nearly as good. It’s the story told from Death’s point of view and how among all the people in the world and all the suffering at the time this girl stood out to him and his telling of her story and those around her which puts the book in a class by itself.

I like books that allow you to put a human face on tribulations endured. For the Holocaust the Diary of Anne Frank did that, Elie Wiesel’s Night did that, and the Book Thief accomplished this also. Great, although very sad read.

REVIEW: 3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows by Anne Brashares

Brashares decided to branch out from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and create a new sisterhood of sorts. This sisterhood only has three members Ama, Polly and Jo. In this book Ama, the braniac of the bunch, is awarded a scholarship to attend a program at one of the local universities over the summer but to her horror is assigned to go to a wilderness camp. Polly decides she wants to be a model (even though she is not the “model” type) and Jo decides to stay with her mom on the beach and takes a job at a local beach café after her mom and dad split up. While there she meets and older boy and has to vie for his affections after his old flame (Effie, younger sister of Lena from the SOTP series) shows up to work there again.

I was a little concerned that when I started reading this that the author would have basically the same characters as the original sisterhood but have given them all different names. I was pleasantly surprised because the characters of this new sisterhood stood on their own and didn’t remind me of the original girls at all. I’m not sure if I liked the character names though. When I read Ama in my mind I kept seeing Anna. I like the individual story lines of each of the girls and I think the author did a good job of showing how people who grow know each other for most of their lives can still reach that point where they grow apart a little bit. I know I have friendships like that-still friends but we all went our individual ways.
I think the only thing I didn’t like was the cameos from some of the SOTP characters, namely Effie. I didn’t like her in the other novels and I didn’t like her in this one. I can see that the author was maybe trying to do a passing of the torch type thing but I think the book could have stood by itself without bringing the old characters back.

REVIEW: The Witch's Trinity by Erika Mailman

The Witch’s Trinity centers on a village in Germany in the 16th century and how the villagers slowly turn on one another by accusing each other of witchcraft in explanation of the long period of bad crops and starvation they have been experiencing. The main character, Gude, is an old woman who lives with her son, wife, and two children and is accused by her daughter-in-law as a convenient way to get rid of the old woman so they would no longer have to feed her. This occurs after Gude’s dearest friend is accused and found guilty after a Priest tries her using the Witch’s Hammer, a “Bible” of recognizing and dealing with witchcraft.

I have to say that I really enjoyed this short read and was able to finish it within a couple of hours. The author definitely has a good imagination. She does a great job of conveying Gude’s vulnerability as an old woman, and does a fantastic job in blurring the lines so we don’t know if Gude really is experiencing what is described in the book or if it is just an old woman’s imagination run wild. Also the glimpse we get of the teachings of the Witch’s Hammer and the methods of torture used to exact confessions from the accused actually made me cringe. I can’t imagine having to go through any of that.

I read The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent which centered on the Carrier family and the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. That story was interesting also but was dull and bogged down in parts and you sort of lost the characters. In my opinion Witch’s Trinity is a much better read because I can’t recall any dull parts at all. I loved the writing style and I hope I get to read more from this author.