Historical Books - Page 6

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Diana Gabaldon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 304 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Don't waste your $7.99 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Did Diana Gabaldon have lots of relatives and friends favorably rate this book? I try to finish every book I start because there is usually some gem or life's truth waiting to be discovered. However, after she rambled on for 101 pages, Gabaldon decided to describe a hemorrhoid operation in great detail. Did her publisher require her to fill 1400 pages, and that's what she came up with? Gabaldon writes well, but in this book she just loosely ties together random and unnecessary subjects in a very boring fashion. After reading 101 pages (out of 1,438!), it was time for the trash.

Another great story of the continuing saga 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I love Diana's style of romance and adventure and this continues. This is worth every minute spent as is all of her other books.

6th in the series 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Historical fiction? General fiction? It's really not romance anymore. If you ask me, only the first book, Outlander, was romance, but nobody's asking me.

And while we're on the subject of things nobody's requesting my opinion on--is this not the plainest, most makeshift cover? I have the hardcover, and it's just really dull. Light gray, plain font. I'm the first to complain about cheesy covers with those shaved-chest cover models (okay, maybe not the first), but surely there's something between embarrassing and something this boring and... well... unprofessional-looking.

On to the book. A Breath of Snow and Ashes is the 6th book in the series that begins with Outlander. I suppose you could read this without having read the rest of the series--but why would you want to? The vast majority of my enjoyment in reading this book came from being invested--for over 15 years--in the saga of Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser and James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser.

If you've somehow managed to avoid hearing about this series, Claire, an English nurse in WWII travels back in time via a stone circle to Scotland, just before the 2nd Jacobite rising. There she meets, falls in love with, and marries Jamie. Now, in the 6th book, they're in America--North Carolina--just before the American Revolution, and once again, Claire knows what's about to happen, but is powerless to change anything in a more than individual way.

I'm not really going to say anything about the plot because at nearly 1000 pages, there's not one overarching plot covering the book. I'm guessing that it simply covers a time period, and that the event at the end (no, I'm not going to spoil it, though if you look through the reviews, you'll find what it is easily enough) was the point Gabaldon wanted to reach by the end of this installment. Unfortunately, most of the action was concentrated at the beginning of the time period covered, and toward the end of the book, weeks and months got skipped over to jump ahead to the prescribed date of the climax.

Pretty much every sort of plot thread you can think of in immediately pre-revolutionary America gets covered--from the fascinating but dangerous dilemma of how and when to change allegiances from the Crown to the Colonies when you know what's going to happen, to a disease epidemic, to the plight of women alone at that time. There's the uneasy melding of different nationalities and religions, the heartbreaking story of the effect of birth defects at that time, the changing relationships with the Indians, and a creepy but strangely sweet 3-way romance.

We catch up with almost all the characters from previous books, find out some of what happened with Young Ian, learn who really fathered Jem, discover more time travelers, and see Roger find himself.

And then there are the inventions. I suppose it's inevitable, and that if I were to travel 200 years into the past, I'd probably be trying to recreate as many modern conveniences and life-saving practices as possible, too, but it got a little old. Claire by herself stuck mostly to the medical and sanitary side of things, but now that Brianna's settled in, she's putting her engineering skills to use and inventing things left and right. Poor Roger's only contribution to modernity is to carve "vrooms" (cars) for the children to play with.

I'd be vastly happier with a 300-page episode every 1 or 2 years that followed a single plot thread from beginning to end than these 1000-page meandering tomes every 5 years or so, but the stage was set from the beginning, so there's no point in changing it now. I'll continue to read the series as long as it lasts, and no doubt I'll edit the books in my head, but I'm not going to complain too much, because I do know what to expect.

When the Duke Returns (Avon Historical Romance)

Eloisa James

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Duchess of Cosway yearns for a man she has never met . . . her husband.

Married by proxy as a child, Lady Isidore has spent years fending off lecherous men in every European court while waiting to meet her husband. She's determined to accept him, no matter how unattractive the duke turns out to be. When she finally lures Simeon Jermyn back to London, his dark handsomeness puts Isidore's worst fears to rest—until disaster strikes.

The duke demands an annulment.

Forsaking his adventuresome past, Simeon has returned to London ready to embrace the life of a proper duke, only to find that his supposed wife is too ravishing, too headstrong, and too sensual to be the docile duchess he has in mind. But Isidore will not give up her claim to the title—or him—without a fight.

She will do whatever it takes to capture Simeon's heart, even if it means sacrificing her virtue. After all, a consummated marriage cannot be annulled.

Yet in forcing Simeon into a delicious surrender, will Isidore risk not only her dignity—but her heart?

A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4)

George R.R. Martin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 776 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Few books have captivated the imagination and won the devotion and praise of readers and critics everywhere as has George R. R. Martin’s monumental epic cycle of high fantasy. Now, in A Feast for Crows, Martin delivers the long-awaited fourth book of his landmark series, as a kingdom torn asunder finds itself at last on the brink of peace...only to be launched on an even more terrifying course of destruction.

A Feast for Crows

It seems too good to be true. After centuries of bitter strife and fatal treachery, the seven powers dividing the land have decimated one another into an uneasy truce. Or so it appears....With the death of the monstrous King Joffrey, Cersei is ruling as regent in King’s Landing. Robb Stark’s demise has broken the back of the Northern rebels, and his siblings are scattered throughout the kingdom like seeds on barren soil. Few legitimate claims to the once desperately sought Iron Throne still exist—or they are held in hands too weak or too distant to wield them effectively. The war, which raged out of control for so long, has burned itself out.

But as in the aftermath of any climactic struggle, it is not long before the survivors, outlaws, renegades, and carrion eaters start to gather, picking over the bones of the dead and fighting for the spoils of the soon-to-be dead. Now in the Seven Kingdoms, as the human crows assemble over a banquet of ashes, daring new plots and dangerous new alliances are formed, while surprising faces—some familiar, others only just appearing—are seen emerging from an ominous twilight of past struggles and chaos to take up the challenges ahead.

It is a time when the wise and the ambitious, the deceitful and the strong will acquire the skills, the power, and the magic to survive the stark and terrible times that lie before them. It is a time for nobles and commoners, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and sages to come together and stake their fortunes...and their lives. For at a feast for crows, many are the guests—but only a few are the survivors.


From the Hardcover edition.

Those Who Save Us

Jenna Blum

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 99 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

What would you do? 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Guilt, fear and prejudice come in many forms. In both this book and the also great "Sarah's Key", WWII survivors' guilt of things they did and didn't do not only haunt them for their entire lives, but the lingering guilt severely affects the way they raise their children. This is an interesting (fictional but believable) insight into a German woman's struggle for her and her daughter to survive the war and how the terror never ends for her. It also helps address the question: "Why did the Germans let the Holocaust happen?". There are no excuses, just a description of the culture at that horrible time.

I highly recommend this book for those, like me, who love stories that deal with complicated issues of relationships.

Editorial Review:

For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald.

Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother's life.

Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation of life during the war, and a poignant mother/daughter drama, Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure to survive and the legacy of shame.

Voyager

Diana Gabaldon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 183 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Captivating! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I first started reading this series a few years ago and highly await the next publication of the series. Written by a very talented Scottsdale, AZ author, Diana Gabaldon; this series of books is for anyone who wants to find a captivating read. The plot starts with a post World War II nurse who is visiting Scotland with her husband and accidentally steps through some stones back in time a few hundred years and how she has to adapt quickly to her surroundings in order to survive. She meets up with a band of Scottish highlanders who take her in and force her into marrying one of their own, the handsome Jamie who protects her from harm and the two end up madly in love. Sounds like a romance novel? Well, it is not. It is researched and written beautifully and you find yourself learning all there is to know about Scotland during this historical time. This novel is for history buffs and well versed readers. This is a series of books that lead us historically through time and place through the eyes of Clare and Jamie. After reading the first book, you will be looking to buy the rest of the series. Hooray for Diana Gabaldon!

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: A Novel

Gregory Maguire

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 278 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Is this new land a place where magics really happen?

From Gregory Maguire, the acclaimed author of Wicked, comes his much-anticipated second novel, a brilliant and provocative retelling of the timeless Cinderella tale.

In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings.... When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats....

We all have heard the story of Cinderella, the beautiful child cast out to slave among the ashes.But what of her stepsisters, the homely pair exiled into ignominy by the fame of their lovely sibling? What fate befell those untouched by beauty . . . and what curses accompanied Cinderella's exquisite looks?

Extreme beauty is an affliction

Set against the rich backdrop of seventeenth-century Holland, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister tells the story of Iris, an unlikely heroine who finds herself swept from the lowly streets of Haarlem to a strange world of wealth, artifice, and ambition. Iris's path quickly becomes intertwined with that of Clara, the mysterious and unnaturally beautiful girl destined to become her sister.

Clara was the prettiest child, but was her life the prettiest tale?

While Clara retreats to the cinders of the family hearth, burning all memories of her past, Iris seeks out the shadowy secrets of her new household--and the treacherous truth of her former life.

God and Satan snarling at each other like dogs.... Imps and fairy godmotbers trying to undo each other's work. How we try to pin the world between opposite extremes!

Far more than a mere fairy-tale, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is a novel of beauty and betrayal, illusion and understanding, reminding us that deception can be unearthed--and love unveiled--in the most unexpected of places.

Cryptonomicon

Neal Stephenson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 834 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

With this extraordinary first volume in what promises to be an epoch-making masterpiece, Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that shaped this century.

In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse - mathematical genius and young Captain in the U.S. Navy - is assigned to detachment 2702. It is an outfit so secret that only a handful of people know it exists, and some of those people have names like Churchill and Roosevelt. The mission of Watrehouse and Detatchment 2702-commanded by Marine Raider Bobby Shaftoe-is to keep the Nazis ignorant of the fact that Allied Intelligence has cracked the enemy's fabled Enigma code. It is a game, a cryptographic chess match between Waterhouse and his German counterpart, translated into action by the gung-ho Shaftoe and his forces.

Fast-forward to the present, where Waterhouse's crypto-hacker grandson, Randy, is attempting to create a "data haven" in Southeast Asia - a place where encrypted data can be stored and exchanged free of repression and scrutiny. As governments and multinationals attack the endeavor, Randy joins forces with Shaftoe's tough-as-nails grandaughter, Amy, to secretly salvage a sunken Nazi sumarine that holds the key to keeping the dream of a data haven afloat. But soon their scheme brings to light a massive conspiracy with its roots in Detachment 2702 linked to an unbreakable Nazi code called Arethusa. And it will represent the path to unimaginable riches and a future of personal and digital liberty...or to universal totalitarianism reborn.

A breathtaking tour de force, and Neal Stephenson's most accomplished and affecting work to date, CRYPTONOMICON is profound and prophetic, hypnotic and hyper-driven, as it leaps forward and back between World War II and the World Wide Web, hinting all the while at a dark day-after-tomorrow. It is a work of great art, thought, and creative daring; the product of a truly icon

The Constant Princess (Boleyn)

Philippa Gregory

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 179 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"I am Catalina, Princess of Spain, daughter of the two greatest monarchs the world has ever known...and I will be Queen of England."

Thus, bestselling author Philippa Gregory introduces one of her most unforgettable heroines: Katherine of Aragon. Known to history as the Queen who was pushed off her throne by Anne Boleyn, here is a Katherine the world has forgotten: the enchanting princess that all England loved. First married to Henry VIII's older brother, Arthur, Katherine's passion turns their arranged marriage into a love match; but when Arthur dies, the merciless English court and her ambitious parents -- the crusading King and Queen of Spain -- have to find a new role for the widow. Ultimately, it is Katherine herself who takes control of her own life by telling the most audacious lie in English history, leading her to the very pinnacle of power in England.

Set in the rich beauty of Moorish Spain and the glamour of the Tudor court, The Constant Princess presents a woman whose constancy helps her endure betrayal, poverty, and despair, until the inevitable moment when she steps into the role she has prepared for all her life: Henry VIII's Queen, Regent, and commander of the English army in their greatest victory against Scotland.

The Chase (Large Print Press)

Clive Cussler

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 121 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Pitt fans will enjoy this 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Although this book is set in the late 1800s, to me it reads a lot like a Dirk Pitt book. This lead character is actually an investigator for a living, but he has many of Pitt's attributes. A page turner from a master storyteller.

Listen to the Mystery! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

If you are a Cussler fan, get excited! The Chase is a fast moving, yet gripping adventure. Cussler's ability to bring detail to life sings throughout the book. Better yet - listen to the book on CD. Long car ride ahead this holiday season? The book brings the visions of old radio shows to life for the listener as you visualize each twist and turn of the plot. Your heart will race as the chase brings the villian and hero together in mystery and murder.

I love Cussler's ability to bring words to life. This is one I highly recmomend to Cussler fan and all those who might want an introduction to a new vision of the mystery adventure novel. Enjoy!

Hesitant at first 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I was hesitant at first since this book was not the type that Cussler usually writes about but once I started reading it, it was hard to put down.

Editorial Review:

A remarkable adventure from the limitless imagination of Clive Cussler.

The Enchantress of Florence: A Novel

Salman Rushdie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 56 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

a little hard to follow, but beautiful poetic writing 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

To start with, I envy anyone who can put together words in such a beautiful way. But I had a pretty hard time following the story. I really didn't care, though, because the writing was so beautiful. If you're someone who has to understand what is going on in every aspect of the story, you might be frustrated reading this. If you can get over it and just enjoy the writing and the parts you understand, then it's definitely worth it. I loved the descriptions and the fable quality of the story.

Editorial Review:

The Enchantress of Florence is the story of a mysterious woman, a great beauty believed to possess the powers of enchantment and sorcery, attempting to command her own destiny in a man’s world. It is the story of two cities at the height of their powers–the hedonistic Mughal capital, in which the brilliant emperor Akbar the Great wrestles daily with questions of belief, desire, and the treachery of his sons, and the equally sensual city of Florence during the High Renaissance, where Niccolò Machiavelli takes a starring role as he learns, the hard way, about the true brutality of power. Profoundly moving and completely absorbing, The Enchantress of Florence is a dazzling book full of wonders by one of the world’s most important living writers.