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Monthly Archives: December 2015

The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks

28 Monday Dec 2015

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Biography, Fiction, Historical Fiction

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Bible, David, historical fiction, Old Testament, religious fiction, rulers and kings of Israel

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I recommend Geraldine Brooks titles to anyone who loves historical fiction.  She has done it once again!  I was swept away into Second Iron Age Israel, most violent of times. This vivid, imaginative account takes one through the tribal battlefields and into the heart of David’s family of 8 wives and 9 children. Inspired by the lost book of Nathan.

“There’s something bordering on the supernatural about Geraldine Brooks.  She seems able to transport herself back to earlier time periods, to time travel.  Sometimes, reading her work, she draws you so thoroughly into another era that you swear she’s actually lived in it.  With sensory acuity and a deep and complex understanding of emotional states, she conjures up the way we lived then. . .Brooks has humanized the king and cleverly added a modern perspective to our understanding of him. . .[Her] vision of the biblical world is enrapturing.”  —The Boston Globe
“The best historical fiction. . .Brooks gives the whole king his due. . .It’s a tall order to breathe life into such a human being, and she manages it admirably.”—NPR
“In her gorgeously written novel of ambition, courage, retribution, and triumph, Brooks imagines the life and character of King David in all his complexity. . .The language, clear and precise throughout, turns soaringly poetic when describing music or the glory of David’s city. . .taken as a whole, the novel feels simultaneously ancient, accessible, and timeless.” —ALA Booklist
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The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

14 Monday Dec 2015

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Fiction

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death, psychological fiction, sisters, widows

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A woman reflects on her life, particularly her relationship with her late sister, who died after driving off a bridge. The novel alternates between past and present, and includes a “novel within a novel” that adds to the mystery surrounding the two sisters’ lives. Margaret Atwood is an acclaimed writer, and this is my favorite of her books that I’ve read.

“Absorbing… expertly rendered… Virtuosic storytelling [is] on display.”–The New York Times

“Brilliant… Opulent… Atwood is a poet…. as well as a contriver of fiction, and scarcely a sentence of her quick, dry yet avid prose fails to do useful work, adding to a picture that becomes enormous.”–John Updike, The New Yorker

“Bewitching… A killer novel…. Atwood’s crisp wit and steely realism are reminiscent of Edith Wharton… A wonderfully complex narrative.”
—The Christian Science Monitor

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The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife and the Missing Corpse: An extraordinary Edwardian case of deception and intrigue by Piu Marie Eatwell

07 Monday Dec 2015

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Biography, History, Non-fiction

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19th century, eccentrics, England, fraud, missing persons, privacy, social aspects, trials

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This non-fiction account reads like fiction.  Eatwell structured the book like a play; instead of chapters she has written acts and scenes so it reads like a farce. I learned that in 19th-century Britain, it wasn’t unheard of for men to lead double lives and have two families and two different names/personalities. Fans of Oscar Wilde will like it!

“A riveting true crime from yesteryear.” (Better Homes & Gardens)

“It’s Downton Abbey meets The Addams Family in Piu Marie Eatwell’s The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse, a delightfully offbeat history of a bizarre Edwardian legal case that became tabloid fodder and kept the British public spellbound for a decade…. Eatwell’s marvelous book reads like a Wilkie Collins gothic novel, but at times truth is stranger than fiction.” (Wilda Williams – Library Journal (Editor’s Fall Picks)
“A meticulous examination of a late Victorian/early Edwardian cause célèbre…with juicy details from the time period.” (Publishers Weekly)“[An] engrossing tale of mystery, lies, and intrigue…Besides recounting years of subterfuge, media hype, greed, and fraud, Eatwell throws light on Victorian and Edwardian society: aristocratic entitlement and power, numbing poverty, political corruption, and many secret lives.” (Kirkus Reviews)

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