Category: Book Review
Catherine: The Great Journey by Kristiana Gregory
(Cover picture courtesy of Fantastic Fiction.)
4 January 1744, Zerbst
She leaned forward, taking my chin in her hand. “You must tell no one what I’m about to say—not your brother, not even Mademoiselle. Understand?”
I nodded. Was she afraid that if others knew the truth they might convince me to run away, thereby spoiling her scheme?
“If the King approves of you…then you and I shall be driven by sleigh out of Prussia, all the way to St. Petersburg, to meet with Empress Elizabeth….She has selected you, my poor ugly daughter to be Peter’s fiancée. Unless you spoil things, the two of you will marry and one day rule all of Russia.”
I know very little about Russian history, so Catherine: The Great Journey was eye-opening to say the least! Did you know Catherine the Great’s real name was Sophie and that she was named Catherine when she was in Russia because of the bad connotations her name had there? I sure didn’t. That’s why it wasn’t only Catherine’s amazing character in this novel that appealed to me, but it was also the history added in.
So far Catherine is my favourite character in the entire Royal Diaries series. Considering that by now I’ve read over half of the books in the series, that’s saying something. In the young Catherine we see the effects of her abusive mother on her worldview, but also her innate thirst for knowledge that would carry on into her later life. This is one princess who makes a point to learn the language of her country and be a good wife if only because of her ambitions to become czarina. An ambitious princess? Shocking, especially in this series aimed at young girls (8-13). But is it satisfying and does it make sense within the context of the story? Absolutely!
The rich descriptions of Russian life are insightful and interesting without Kristiana Gregory ever having to default to Professor Mode and start lecturing. This is the kind of book you is enjoyable to read as an adult, despite being aimed at a much younger audience. Not only do we get to learn about Catherine’s private struggles, but she is actually concerned and knowledgeable about the world around her, including her future country. Amazing, isn’t it?
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Kazunomiya: Prisoner of Heaven by Kathryn Lasky
(Cover picture courtesy of Lyre Center for Literature for Young Readers.)
Yayoi March 7, 1858
As the maids spread out the kimonos, we welcomed back the colors…of spring, like old friends. For only now we may begin to wear them. But during the tea party I am feeling all the while that this talk of silks and colors and painted blossoms covers up something. It is what is not being said that is perhaps the most disturbing. I feelt hat these women know something I do not….There is a shrillness to Lady Tomaki’s laughter that seems not quite natural…..And there is absolutely no talk of the prince, my future husband. It is so obvious to me that I dare not ask about him.
Maybe it was the fact that I really have no interest in Japan or Japanese history in general or maybe it was the book itself, but I did not really enjoy Kazunomiya: Prisoner of Heaven. I didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t as good as some of the other books in The Royal Diaries.
Kazunomiya was a pretty bland character who just did not appeal to me. Although it is likely how the real woman behaved, for someone born in the year of the Fire Horse and supposedly was a fighter, she was not very proactive. Instead, we only really get to see a bit of her frustration (not anger) through her writing in her diary, not her actions. It just felt like Kathryn Lasky wanted to go for the firebrand female angle in the beginning, but just sort of gave up a quarter of the way through. As a character, Kazunomiya is not very consistent.
Although I know a bit about the modernization of Japan, it would have been nice for Kathryn Lasky just to give readers a little more background. Yes, Japan and the Imperial court were both incredibly isolated from the outside world, but surely there would have been some news that reached the ears of Kazunomiya. I can definitely see where things would get confusing for someone with no background in the Japan’s rapid industrialization.
Overall: meh. None of the characters really stuck out for me and I didn’t really learn as much as I would have liked. Still, it’s a great book to get girls aged 8-13 interested in history so it’s fine by me if other people like it. I’m not the target audience anymore, after all.
I give this book 3/5 stars.
*Available as a used book only.
Elisabeth: The Princess Bride by Barry Denenberg
(Cover picture courtesy of random buzzers.)
Saturday, September 24, 1853
Finding myself the most important person in the whole household and the constant center of attention is most unnerving and disturbing. I wish it were not so, but there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do to stop it.
I can’t go out anywhere unless everyone knows where I am because there are so many great personages and foreign delegations arriving night and day to meet me….
Possi used to be so serene and calming, but now that I have so much to do, it is far from that. I hardly have any time to spend with my animals, walk in the woods, or even ride with Poppy.
I wish I could go back to the way things were….
My first thought upon finishing this book: No wonder the monarchies all around Europe fell. Such extravagance, ingrained traditions and lack of self-awareness! Such inbreeding! (Well, that was what the Hapsburgs were famous for, after all.)
If this wasn’t real historical fact, I’d be laughing at the cliché premise. I mean, really? A young princess goes with her older sister and mother to meet the Emperor of Austria with the hopes of arranging a marriage. The older sister is the one he’s supposed to marry, but the young Emperor falls in love with the younger sister and after a whirlwind courtship, the two marry soon after. Believe it or not, it’s all true and the incredibly short ‘diary’ that Barry Denenberg wrote (only 93 pages of actual fiction; the rest is historical notes) from Elisabeth’s point of view reflects the crazy pace of said courtship. Sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction.
I would have liked Elisabeth to be fleshed out a little more before meeting the Emperor, but she was a very interesting character. There are hints at the Empress’ eating disorder in her teenage years, as shown by her obsessive weight-watching and her vanity shines through as well. Despite that, she is a very interesting character that tweens and young teens will love. Of course, having her being courted by a handsome, powerful young man certainly helps the story’s appeal.
Readers will see the extravagance of the Austrian court and I personally began wondering why the Hapsburgs hadn’t fallen sooner. I mean, really, marrying first cousins? And even if the centuries of inbreeding didn’t do them in, you would think the populace would revolt at the extravagance of the monarchy. Barry Denenberg really did a great job showing the entirely different world the royals lived in at the time; it’s hard to believe it all took place in the 19th century. (Yes, my anti-monarch bias is showing, I know.) As for how historically accurate things were, I can’t really say because that’s not my area of expertise, but it seems to be very well researched.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
*Available only as a used book.
1984 by George Orwell
(Cover picture courtesy of Sanjee’s Book Nook.)
Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. when Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities. Despite the police helicopters that hover and circle overhead, Winston and Julia begin to question the Party; they are drawn towards conspiracy. Yet Big Brother will not tolerate dissent—even in the mind. For those with original thoughts they have invented Room 101.
1984 is probably one of the toughest (if not the toughest) book to review. It has become a cultural phenomenon and is referred to in everything from movies, news and talk shows to everyday conversation. Before even reading the book, I knew the basic plot of the story, knew the terms doublethink, Big Brother, Room 101 and Thought Police. For someone who tries to not even read reviews (unless that’s how I discover a book) before reading a book, this makes reviewing 1984 nearly impossible. But I’ll try to talk about the book on its own merits, not on what it has become in our culture.
Frankly, 1984 is a terrifying picture of a possible future in which everyone’s actions, even thoughts are under strict control. Enter Winston Smith, a man who remembers the first days of the Revolution and the Party’s rise to power. But he can’t talk about it because the Party now has complete power over everything, past, present and future. The past is malleable and can be changed in an instant, which is part of Winston’s job in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth. After being oppressed for so long, Winston is the kind of person you would expect. He’s terrified of being found out, yet rebels in small ways by writing in his diary and loving Julia.
Yes, Winston is a hero in some respects, but he’s not your traditional hero or even your traditional anti-hero. He’s just a man struggling through life in an oppressive regime, knowing that there is no hope of change. He doesn’t join the rebels in actively fighting against the Party and Big Brother, he doesn’t become a high-ranking official of the Inner Party to sabotage their efforts, he doesn’t distribute pamphlets denouncing the government and he certainly doesn’t do any other traditional hero-in-a-dystopia things. Maybe I’ve been reading too much YA lately, but 1984, depressing as it is, is quite a nice change. It’s not a hopeful or uplifting story; it’s a warning.
I wouldn’t exactly call 1984 fast-paced by modern standards, but it’s not like I fell asleep reading it either. There’s an atmosphere of doom that hangs over the whole novel and it sucks you in, forcing you to keep reading even though you know the ending. The best part of George Orwell’s book? You can interpret it how you like. You can interpret it as a warning against big government, a tirade against socialism (or, conversely, praise of socialism), a cautionary tale about what happens when people stop questioning their leaders, etc. It’s easy to see how the term ‘Orwellian’ worked its way into the vocabulary of not only our politicians, but the general populace.
I give this book 5/5 stars. I mean, really, this is one of the few classics that should be studied in school.
The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I by Stephen Alford
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
In a Europe aflame with wars of religion and dynastic conflicts, Elizabeth I came to a throne encircled by menace. To the Catholic powers of Europe, England was a heretic pariah state and her queen was “Jezebel,” the bastard offspring of Henry VIII’s illegal second marriage. The pope denounced her; the kings of France and Spain conspired to destroy her, their plans culminating in the Spanish Armada. Many of the Queen’s own subjects plotted her overthrow—or her assassination.
If Elizabeth’s reign was a golden age, then, it was also a precarious one that required unrelenting surveillance by Her Majesty’s secret service. Headed by the brilliant, enigmatic and widely feared Sir Francis Walsingham, the Elizabethan security network willingly deployed every dark art: spies, disinformation, double agents, cryptography, and torture.
Delving deeply into secret files, Stephen Alford offers a chillingly vivid depiction of Elizabethan espionage. In his company we follow Her Majesty’s agents through the streets of London and Rome, and into the dank cells of the Tower. Alford brings to life this shadowy world, where no one could be trusted and a single mistake could have changed England’s history. The Watchers is a riveting exploration of loyalty, faith, betrayal, and deception with the highest possible stakes, in a world poised between the Middle Ages and modernity.
[Full disclosure: Bloomsbury Publishing sent me a free print copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.]
I don’t read nearly as much nonfiction as I would like, so The Watchers was both a refreshing change from YA novels and a great book in its own right. For someone who knows a decent amount about the Tudors and Medieval England, I was shocked at how big of a role spying played back then. It wasn’t just basic spying either: it was sophisticated and at times, incredibly complicated. Stephen Alford has documented the lives of some of the main players in the spy game, from the talented to the incompetent, the eccentric to the boring.
Although Alford’s writing can get a bit choppy here and there as he jumps from spy to spy, he does tie things up well at the end of the chapters and at the very end of the book. Despite the head-hopping, the writing style itself was very engaging for a nonfiction writer and made The Watchers far more enjoyable.To illustrate his point that spying was very important in Tudor England, he had a very lengthy introduction imagining a scenario in which spies did not exist and Elizabeth I really had been assassinated. I would have liked for the introduction to be cut down slightly, but Alford certainly did make his point well.
One thing I really liked about The Watchers is that Alford isn’t telling a completely one-sided story of the struggle of Protestants to protect their queen from evil Catholics. We get to see how the Protestant agents felt about their missions, but also get to see things from the point of view of Catholic exiles. it’s rare to find such balanced nonfiction these days, but Alford managed it. The political triumphs of courtiers like Lord Burghley are balanced by accounts of the terrible torture captured Catholics faced. Alford does not depict a picture of a Golden Age as most books about Elizabethan England seem to and we get to see that the ugly side of the Golden Age was quite ugly at times. It’s nice to find a more realistic portrayal of the times.
Overall, The Watchers is a great book for both newcomers to history and old hats at it. Personally, I’m looking forward to any future books Stephen Alford publishes.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.