Author Archive
What better way to combat the dog days of summer than to read something really trashy. That, at least, was my justification for checking out The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown. I promised myself that I would just look at the pictures and browse through a few chapters, but much to my surprise, I ended up reading the book from cover to cover
You probably won’t be interested in the Chronicles unless you are already a fan of Diana’s or the Royal Family, and if you are, you’ll find much that is already familiar. But Brown adds so much new detail and writes with so much background knowledge of British society and royaly that she brings fresh insight to the whole sad story (she is the former editor of the upscale gossip magazines the Tatler and Vanity Fair, and knew Diana and many of the royals personally.) With 486 pages of text and 44 pages of footnotes, this book has more the feel of an authorized biography than a “tell-all”.
But Brown also drops enticing little tidbits, such as the idea that much of Camilla’s appeal for Charles is because she closely resembles his beloved nanny! She offers much new information about Diana’s sad, lonely childhood, the completely dysfunctional Spenser family, Diana’s many love affairs, and whether Dodi and Diana would have married—a resounding “no!’
Ultimately, The Diana Chronicles asks the reader to decide if Diana was “the people’s princess” who electrified the world with her beauty and her humanitarian missions, or was she a manipulative, media-savvy neurotic who nearly brought down the monarchy?
You’ll have to decide for yourself, but Tina Brown convinced me that she was both.
August 16th, 2007
Ann M.
A couple of weeks ago, while channel surfing, I ran across a
made-for-TV movie starring Magnum P. I. sans Hawaiian shirt and fancy red sports car. Tom Selleck, looking somewhat older and much more stoic was portraying Jesse Stone, the police chief of a small New England town called in Sea Change. Jesse is a guy with lots of problems. He drinks too much, usually alone at night while listening to Brahms. He’s hung up on his ex-wife, although he still attracts and dates lots of beautiful women. And, he doesn’t talk much. On the plus side, Jesse is a very good cop, and he has a very caring, human side that causes him to frequently bend the rules to help those in trouble. Add to this a cast of quirky, small town characters and some very witty dialogue, and Sea Change made for quite an enjoyable two hours.
When I looked at the credits to see where the movie was filmed—the scenery was gorgeous—I was surprised to discover that the film was based on a book by Robert B. Parker. A quick check of the library catalog revealed that Parker—a prodigious mystery writer also responsible for the Spenser novels—has written a series of six Jesse Stone mysteries. I’ve since read two of them, and my husband and I listened to an audiobook of a third.
I’m not much of a fan of crime novels, but I found this series has plenty of character development, and just enough wit and grit to set it apart from the average “who done it”. Because there’s so much dialog, the books are a quick, easy read—great to take along on vacation.
July 21st, 2007
Ann M.
The title of Janet Fitch’s new novel, Paint It Black, says it all. This book is very dark, depressing, and at times, painful to read. Josie Tyrell is a trailer trash teen runaway who works as an artist’s model and actress in LA’s 1980 punk rock scene. She meets and falls in love with Michael Faraday, an art student, Harvard dropout and son of a renowned pianist. They live in a tiny cottage where they create their own idealized dream world, until one day, shortly after the book begins, Josie is notified by the coroner that Michael has committed suicide.
At Michael’s funeral we meet his mother, Meredith Loewy, and learn about the world of wealth and privilege in which he was raised. Meredith and Josie are both repelled and attracted to one another as they try to understand the very different Michaels that each of them knew, and, through this understanding, fathom his suicide. As she learns more about Michael from his mother, Josie slowly and painfully reexamines her relationship with her lover, moving through the various stages of grief, eventually emerging as a stronger person.
What keeps you reading is Fitch’s mesmerizing prose and her ability to create realistic worlds peopled with believeable characters. Not for the squeamish.
October 13th, 2006
Ann M.
Some of my all time favorite books have been Booker Prize winners: Amsterdam, The English Patient, Possession, The Remains of the Day. Somehow I missed reading the 2005 winner, The Sea by John Banville, and was only recently reminded of it by a review suggesting it as a good book discussion choice. I was delighted to find it on the shelf, and took it home with great anticipation.
When I began reading, I was not disappointed. Banville’s use of language is incredible. I found myself re-reading sentences sometimes out loud, because they were put together so magically. I loved his use of artistic and literary allusion. And, of course, there was the protagonist—a mid-aged, recently widowed art historian, mourning his wife by returning to scenes of his childhood—a small Irish seaside village where he was once infatuated by a wealthy and sophisticated family who vacationed there, and with whom, we come to suspect, a life changing event occurred.
The next day at work I couldn’t stop talking about this book! The magnificent use of language, the interesting characters. I recommended it to staff and patron alike. I couldn’t wait to get home that night and read more. Then it happened…the story began to drag; the characters, who at first seemed delightfully quirky, remained that way and never developed in ways that I could care for them. Even the beautiful language, so seductive in the novel’s opening pages, became a barrier to the story’s development. And the ending…Well, I don’t want to spoil it for you.
Where did the author go wrong? And that erudite group of Brits who choose The Sea as the winner of one of world’s most prestigious literary prizes? What were they thinking? Or was it just me, overwhelmed by the heat?
August 8th, 2006
Ann M.
If you are looking for a great big summer read brimming with interesting characters and sumptuous descriptions of food and landscape, Julia Glass‘ new novel The Whole World Over is the book for you. There’s a huge cast of finely drawn characters, centering around Manhattan pastry chef Greenie Duquette, her psychotherapist husband, Alan, and their four year old son George.
When the charismatic governor of New Mexico offers Greenie a job as his personal chef, she decides to take a break from her stagnating marriage, and move her son to Santa Fe. Back in New York, Alan struggles through his mid-life crisis, looking for answers in a past relationship. The stories of Saga, a brain-damaged young woman who rescues stray animals and Fenno McLeod, a Scottish bookseller from Glass’ first novel Three Junes, become entwined with those of Alan and Walter, and ultimately, Greenie, as all of them search for love and family.
Descriptions of Greenie and Alan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood, her summer house in Maine and the arid New Mexico landscape are amazingly vivid, but Glass’ writing is at its lavish best when conjuring up the huge variety of concoctions that Greenie and Walter create and serve family and friends.
June 23rd, 2006
Ann M.
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was one of the great painters of the Italian Baroque. He was both venerated and despised during his lifetime for his bold, innovative painting techniques and his unconventional, often violent, life-style. Soon after his death in 1610, his work fell out of favor and remained so for over three centuries.
Art historians began reassessing Caravaggio’s work in the 1950’s which set scholars on the hunt for his missing works. It is one of these works, The Taking of Christ, which is the subject of Jonathan Harr’s book, The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece. Harr skillfully weaves together Caravaggio’s biography with the stories of the painstaking work of two Italian graduate students, an aging art historian and an art restorer in Ireland as they track down and ultimately find Caravaggio’s missing masterpiece. Part detective story, part behind-the-scenes look at the complexities of the art world, this fast-paced thriller will keep you reading even you don’t know a thing about art.
Fellow MADreads reviewer Sarah agrees:
International art world? Caravaggio? Italian Baroque paintings of religious subjects? These may not be hot button topics for you, but we promise that, regardless of your interest in the art world, Harr’s stunning investigative prose and masterful use of interview material from all the principal characters will draw you in.
May 26th, 2006
Ann M.
While graduate student Joe Roper is sorting through a donated collection of Elizabethan documents, he finds a letter stating that Shakespeare never wrote any plays. The letter is signed by William Shakespeare himself. Intrigued, Joe teams up with a fellow grad student to begin a DaVinci Code like search to validate the letter and find the true author. Chasing Shakespeares by Sarah Smith is part literary thriller, part modern day mystery and part graduate seminar in 16th century literature. Like its non-fiction counterpart, Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt, Smith’s novel tries to determine how a young man from a small provincial town, without wealth, powerful family connections or a university education, could move to London and in a relatively short time, become the greatest playwright of all time.
May 11th, 2006
Ann M.