from the sidelines of history to the Queen of Sweden

The Queen's Fortune: A Novel of Désirée, Napolean, and the Dynasty that Outlasted the Empire by Allison Pataki

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Genre: historical fiction

Review: When one thinks about Napolean Bonaparte, perhaps one thinks about conquest and exile, Josephine, and the advice never to fight a land war in Asia.  But what about the woman who loved him when he was still just Napoleone Buonaparte, an upstart military officer from Corsica?  Those who read Annemarie Selinko's book Désirée, published in 1951, know her story, but it's taken 70 years for anyone to take another look at her.  And her life is worth looking at!  Although neither Selinko nor Pataki portray Désirée as having had much agency in life, let alone in world events, she was witness to a lot of history, from the French Revolution to the beginning of the Victorian Era, seeing much of it from her perch as the Queen of Sweden.  How did a French girl from Marseille become Queen of Sweden?  Pataki (and Selinko) bring Désirée's history and France in this era to life.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

history repeats itself

The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray

Rating: 4.75 stars (out of 5)

Genre: historical fiction

Review: In her author's note and throughout the book, Dray talks about the "Spirit of Lafayette," which, even as an American history major, I'm ashamed to know I knew very little about until reading this book.  Now, I know a lot more, and am inspired to continue my learning with non-fiction (to me, this is a mark of good historical fiction).  Dray's research is exacting, but she avoids the well-researched novelist's abyss of needing to share everything she's learned.  Instead, this is a deep and rich portrait of three women, each of whom embody the "Spirit of Lafayette" throughout three different wars.

Dray bit off a lot with this book, which weaves together three separate stories, that of Adrienne de Lafeyette during the American and French Revolutions, Beatrice Chanler during WWI, and the fictional Marthe Simone during WWII.  Each could have sustained a story on their own.  And it might have been less confusing if Dray had made this into a trilogy, rather than a single, interweaving story.  In fact, my only teeny complaint about this book is that I sometimes forgot which war we were in.  (My actual thoughts several times during the book: "You can't go to Paris now, the Nazis will get you!  Oh wait, this is WWI...")  I can only imagine that people who lived through both wars might have felt the same way.  But I understand that each story gained power from being told alongside the others.

To say that this book moves slowly doesn't do it justice.  Think of it like a lazy, meandering river.  It'll take you a long time to get from one end to the other, but the journey is more than worth it.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

these boots were made for walking

Two Steps Forward by Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: Martin and Zoe are both recently single, middle-aged people who decide to walk to the Camino de Santiago starting in Cluny, France.  Neither of them have particularly good reasons to walk hundreds of miles on an historical pilgrimage, but it seems like a good idea at the time.  They don't know each other until just before they set out, but fate brings them together on the trail.  And apart.  And together.  And apart.  And together again.  Each time they come together, the encourage each other forward with well-placed cliches, and then misunderstand each other just enough so that they separate again.

Martin's and Zoe's stories are somewhat less than compelling, unfortunately, and the cast of characters they meet along the way isn't much better.  But the descriptions of the Camino were very well done, and almost made me feel like I was walking alongside them.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

biography with a large side of bias

Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England by Alison Weir
Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: history
Challenge: A-Z (title)
Review: It's not uncommon for a biographer to develop some sympathy for their subject. In this case, though, one gets the feeling that Weir developed her sympathy before writing the book, and, in fact, set out to do her research to redeem Isabella's reputation, rather than simply to write an account of her life. Which is not intrinsically a bad thing. My problem is that Weir spends too much time disproving one historical theory of Isabella after another when, no matter your bias, the evidence is just not there for a conclusive determination either way. And yet, Weir routinely calls any conclusion but the one she has drawn "speculative." As far as I can tell, her conclusions are just as speculative!

Having said that, Weir is to be commended for the thoroughness of her research. It must be incredibly difficult to come up with so much material about a woman of that time, even one as notorious as Queen Isabella. And Weir does an admirable job of taking the dry account books and other records and turning them into an actual narrative, to say nothing of making that narrative compelling at times.