Love Artist, Jane Alison

Book Review: Well let me start off by saying I am very picky with my books, if they dont catch my attention in the first few chapters then I will not finish it. When I picked up this book I did not want to put it down, it catch my attention in the first few pages. I love the Jane Alison describes her chatacter. She goes in depth, so when you are reading it you can acually picture what that character really looks like or the place that she is describing. This was an awesome book and I would recommend this book to anyone. It is in the era when Emperor Augustus and the time of Jesus Christ.

I love this book so much that I want to buy it to have on my little book shelve!

Book Synopsis: Little is known about Ovid's life in exile in the first century A.D., and only two lines of his acclaimed Medea survive today. In this strong debut novel, Alison reimagines Ovid's sojourn on the east coast of the Black Sea, where Emperor Augustus, in the middle of a campaign to restore morality to his new empire, has banished the poet, displeased by the success of his Loves and The Art of Love. Here Ovid meets Xenia, a wild-eyed young woman who lives in isolation. The only literate person in her community, Xenia acts as town mystic, casting spells, healing the sick and telling futures. Ovid, who admits he believes in Amazons, with "their strong sweating thighs clutching galloping horses, wild howls coming from their parched, cracked mouths," is eager to be stunned by the "fishy, monstrous, unreal." He imagines the jealous, stormy Xenia to be his Galatea and sweeps her back to Rome, where she unwittingly becomes the muse for the lost Medea, his darkest work. From Alison's depiction of a trio of gossips at a patrician's dinner party, "dark eyes flying from one to the other like torches," to her description of an evening walk in Rome freighted with the knowledge that thousands of animals are "denned beneath the city's streets until they were let out, half starved, to devour terrified criminals or be speared in the emperor's shows," she demonstrates familiarity and ease with her subject; and her historic detail is never pedantic. Even those unfamiliar with Ovid and Roman history will delight in this tale of romantic intrigue, rife with blood, jealous rage and the consciousness of human frailty.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

For more information or buy:http://www.amazon.com/Love-Artist-Novel-Jane-Alison/dp/B001KZHG5Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1250258862&sr=8-1#

Second Nature, Alice Hoffman

Book Review: So I discovered Alice Hoffman through Sarah Addison Allen. While reading up on Allen I found out that Hoffman had greatly influenced her work as a student. I found this facinating to say the least! It's funny, but not so far off the charts that I have been inspired by Sarah A. Allen! And Alice Hoffman! Both are great writers and both have a sense of weaving the known and the unknown together with such simplicity and yet with such intricacy that it is impossible to remove the characters from their situations.

In Second Nature Hoffman taps into the human instinct for chasing a mystery. The entire book is a mystery! From beginning to end she draws you in deeper and deeper until having to turn the page is an interruption! The story is seemless in its sense of rhythm; Hoffman takes you into the inner workings of human nature, its core, its baseness...there is a raw, wild and edgy quality to this novel that just grips you from beginning to end.

The tension she creates in and between her characters is so tangible that at the last page turn it was with a sense of sadness but also a sense of relief that I put this book down! Her characters are vivid, they are raw, they come out at you from the pages!

If you enjoy a good read this is definitely the book for you! It gave me chills and warmed me at the same time!

Book Synopsis: Beguiled by her seductive prose and her imaginative virtuosity, readers have always been willing to suspend disbelief and enjoy the touches of magic in Hoffman's novels ( Illumination Night ; Turtle Moon , etc). Here, credibility is stretched not by magical intervention but by the implausibility of a major character. When a feral young man is discovered living with wolves in a remote area of upper Michigan, he cannot speak and can barely remember his early life. Transferred to a hospital in Manhattan, he does not utter a sound and is on his way to being incarcerated in a mental institution until divorced landscape designer Robin Moore impulsively hustles him into her pickup truck and carries him to the sanctuary of her home on an island in Nassau County. There the Wolf Man reveals that his name is Stephen and that he was the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed his parents when he was three-and-a-half years old; thereafter he lived with a wolf pack. Within three months Robin teaches Stephen to read; soon afterwards they begin a passionate affair. How Stephen can so easily expand the small vocabulary he had mastered at a tender age but has never used since, how suddenly he can deal with sophisticated concepts, speak in grammatical sentences and even observe the social graces, is the central flaw that undermines what is otherwise a highly engaging tale. Stephen's presence in the community causes various people to reassess their lives; then there is a tragedy involving a child, (a device that is beginning to be a pattern in Hoffman's novels, as are strange changes in climate that herald a significant event). Hoffman's keen appraisal of human nature and her graceful prose do much to keep this novel appealing; but the bedrock implausibility may deter readers from whole-hearted enjoyment. Synopsis Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

For more information or to purchase http://www.amazon.com/Second-Nature-Alice-Hoffman/dp/0425161633/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241233005&sr=1-2

The Sugar Queen, Sarah Addison Allen

Book Review: I picked up her second book simply because her first was so delightful! I was expecting an equally enthralling read but was sorely disappointed!

In her second novel Allen sadly falls short of her debut in Garden Spells! The author who's debut novel I couldn't put down failed to keep me entranced through her second attempt. Her characters were accentric and taciturn and I couldn't connect with any of them on a more deeper level than words on a page. The plot was rather bland and the whole ensemble seemed almost haphazardly put together with long pauses for effect.

I did however, like that her protagonist was an identifiable character. She was definitely not your run-of-the-mill variety.

Basically, I was not into it! Slightly dissappointing.

Book Synopsis: Much like her charming debut novel Garden Spells, Sarah Addison Allen's Sugar Queen is a blend of food and magic. Josey Cirrini is fast approaching thirty. She's a plump, painfully shy recluse who hides in her closet stuffing herself with junk food and reading romance novels to find solace from her overbearing mother (the two live together). While her mother Margaret was a classic Southern belle, Josey is mousy and timid, with no friends, no love life, and no dreams. She's expected to stay and care for her mother. But Josey's dull, predictable life is turned upside-down when bad girl Della Lee mysteriously appears in her closet, smack-dab in the middle of her stash of moonpies, pecan rolls, and Little Debbie snacks. Della Lee is Josey's opposite: she lives fast and hard, has been arrested for solicitation, and seems to be on the run from someone. The only problem is that she refuses to leave the closet.

Synopsis Courtesy of Amazon.com

For more information or to purchase http://www.amazon.com/Sugar-Queen-Random-Readers-Circle/dp/0553384848/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241231234&sr=1-1

The Maid of the White Hands (Tristan and Isolde Novels, #2), Rosalind Miles

Book Review: Boring. I was looking for something interesting and instead got a mixture of Wicca and Sci-Fi.

Book Synopsis: Isolde's day has come. In Ireland, her mother, the Queen, lies dying. The throne of the Emerald Isle, one of the last strongholds of the goddess, awaits her. But while Ireland is her destiny, Isolde is already Queen of Cornwall, trapped in a loveless marriage to its mean-spirited King Mark. Her true love is his nephew, Tristan of Lyonesse, who has never married, remaining faithful only to Isolde.

Across the sea in France, a young princess who shares Isolde's name enters the story. King Hoel named his daughtor in honor of Isolde of Ireland, and young Isolde of France has always been determined to outdo her beautiful namesake. She is a physician, too, and is called "Blanche Mains," for her white hands and healing touch. Blanche is of an age to be married, and she has chosen her husband—Tristan of Lyonesse. Her father objects, but fate favors Blanche. King Mark has become suspicious of his wife and nephew, and when Tristan is wounded in battle, he sees a chance to separate them for good.Mark sends Tristan to France to be healed by Blanche, who makes the most of the opportunity. Tristan's letters to Isolde are intercepted, and he is told that she has given him up. Near death from his wounds, Tristan sends one last, desparate letter to Isolde by a trusted servant. He is dying, he tells her, and asks for one final sign of their love. If she can forgive him for betraying her, she must come to France in a ship set with white sails. If the ship's sails are black, however, he will know that she no longer loves him. Isolde immediately leaves for France, but when Blanche sees the white-sailed ship from the castle window, she pulls the curtains and tells Tristan that the sails are black. To her horror, he turns his face to the wall and dies.

There ends the traditional medieval story of Tristan and Isolde—with betrayal, death, and grief. But the original Irish lengend ends differently, and so does this book, wth magic and drama as only Rosalind Miles could write it. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. Synopsis Courtesy of Amazon.com

You can purchase this book at http://www.amazon.com/White-Hands-Tristan-Isolde-Novels/dp/B000C4SLOQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241220584&sr=1-1

Ombria in Shadow, Patricia A. McKillip

Book Review: This is a staple on my bookshelf! I've had it for ages, and read it as many times! In my opinion there will never be another fantasy novel that equals Ombria in Shadow!

The sights, sounds, smells are so vibrant in McKillip's hands and envelop the reader plunging you into the heart of Ombria! McKillip's characters are complex in their simplicity and draw the reader into their story, each one individual but each one woven into those that abide in the heart of Ombria.

This novel continues to be one of my favorite novels! One that I can't put down, time and time again.

Book Synopsis: As Ombria in Shadow demonstrates, World Fantasy Award winner Patricia A. McKillip (author of Riddle-Master, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, and other novels) ranks with Ursula K. Le Guin and Jane Yolen as one of the great fantasists of the 20th century--and the 21st.
The Prince of Ombria lies dying, and already his sinister great-aunt, Domina Pearl--called the Black Pearl--is seizing power. The Prince's heir is a child, a boy too young to oppose her, and the Prince's nephew is a powerless bastard, an artist preoccupied with sketching the decaying city. No one lives who may stop the Black Pearl's ascent to the throne, or so it seems. But beneath the streets of Ombria lies a second, shadow Ombria, a buried city inhabited not only by ghosts, but by a powerful, mysterious sorceress and her creation, a girl sculpted from wax. But the sorceress is a woman of uncertain allegiances, and her beautiful young assistant has become fascinated by the Prince's bastard nephew--and has caught the malevolent eye of the Black Pearl. --Cynthia Ward. Synopsis Courtesy of Amazon.com

You can purchase this book at http://www.amazon.com/Ombria-Shadow-Patricia-McKillip/dp/044100895X

Garden Spells, Sarah Addison Allen

Book Review: If you haven't already guessed from reading my reviews, I SO judge a book by its cover! Ordinarily I would not have picked this book up during one of my weekly library visits, but just browsing through the books I came across this delectable sage green colored book! Yes! I picked it up because I loved the color of the book cover! Not to mention how intriguing the title was...Garden Spells...it sounded like something very much like The Secret Garden! And at the time I picked it up, Spring was just setting in and I was totally into the gardening thing, being that this was the first Spring since Jason and I got married where we actually HAD a garden!!

As I always do, I opened the cover and read the insert. A little magic, a lot of mystery! I loved it from the moment I started reading it! In her debut novel Saran A. Allen sprinkles generous handfulls of fairydust over everything including the wonderful delicacies that comes out of her characters' kitchen!

This book reminds me of a cross between Practical Magic and Paula's Home Cooking!!!! It's awesome! My two favorite combinations:O)

This book is definitely for the little girl in you! A fairytale for adults! This is definitely a must-read for anyone with a little magic in their souls! Sarah Addison Allen definitely delivers a character rich, magical debut novel that takes the chore out of reading.

Book Synopsis:Two gifted sisters draw on their talents to belatedly forge a bond and find their ways in life in Allen's easygoing debut novel. Thirty-four-year-old Claire Waverley manifests her talent in cooking; using edible flowers, Claire creates dishes that affect the eater in curious ways. But not all Waverley women embrace their gifts; some, including Claire's mother, escape the family's eccentric reputation by running away. She abandoned Claire and her sister when they were young. Consequently, Claire has remained close to home, unwilling to open up to new people or experiences. Claire's younger sister, Sydney, however, followed in their mother's footsteps 10 years ago and left for New York, and after a string of abusive, roustabout boyfriends, returns to Bascom, N.C., with her five-year-old daughter, Bay. As Sydney reacquaints herself with old friends and rivals, she discovers her own Waverley magic. Claire, in turn, begins to open up to her sister and in the process learns how to welcome other possibilities. Though Allen's prose can lean toward the pedestrian and the romance subplots feel perfunctory, the blending of horticultural folklore, the supernatural and a big dollop of Southern flavor should find favor with a wide swath of readers. (Aug.) Synopsis Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.