What's Kristine Reading? September Edition

   My selection for this month is "Under the Tuscan Sun" by Frances Meyer. I know, I know...the book came out in 1996. A little late for a book review, huh? But I had two reasons for reading it now: 1) I'm pretty sure this is one of the few of the book group books that I've missed in the 17 years I've been with the group and I wanted to catch up (I'm a little obsessive like that) and 2) it was something like 99 cents on Bookbub, so I went for it.

   As I probably have mentioned, I don't really want to have any kind of advance knowledge of a book prior to reading it. I like diving into a book blind and letting the words lead me where they may. A general idea of a book is all I need. "It's funny" or "It's about a girl growing up in World War I" is enough for me. Sometimes this works out well, like with "The Name of the Wind", but other times not so much. Example: I didn't realize that "The Time Traveller's Wife" was supposed to be this epic love story. I kept waiting for the time traveller to be a serial killer or something. Needless to say, I didn't have the same reaction to that book as most people.
   But I digress. My point of the previous paragraph was to highlight that I had very limited knowledge of this book prior to reading it. I knew that it was about a woman who bought a house in Italy, that it had been made into a movie starring Diane Lane, and that there were recipes in it. That's it. I kind of figured it would be like "Eat, Pray, Love" where the author made a lot of mistakes while renovating the house, but learned something deep and profound about herself in the process. I also assumed that since it was made into a movie, it had to be decent, right? They don't make movies out of bad books, RIGHT?
   Yeah - not so much. While beautifully written, this book has absolutely no plot whatsoever. None. Long story short, a rich professor / writer purchases a historic home in Italy with her professor boyfriend and they spend a lot of money fixing it up. They also took a lot of walks and described how beautiful the countryside was. Sure, there were some mishaps with the contractors (aren't there always?), but nothing out of the ordinary. For a book to be of interest for me, it has to actually have a story and some character development. "Under the Tuscan Sun" has neither. It's basically a 300-page travel brochure for the Tuscan countryside. And for that purpose, it does quite well. I really want to go to buy a million-dollar, remote farmhouse in the middle of Italy where my biggest worry is not being able to find the proper mill to press my home-grown olives into olive oil. Yes, that was one of the big dilemmas the author faced. And how about this for a plot line? The author met another rich expat who was downsizing from her mansion and gave the author a bunch of antique furniture. OH, THE HORROR! Seriously - who lives this life?
   After I finished the book, I was wondering how in the world this got made into a movie. Turns out - they changed the plot so, you know, it actually had a plot. While I understand that this book was a memoir and that sometimes our lives aren't that exciting, I think this book would have been best served with a little bit of embellishment to maintain the reader's interest. It wouldn't have been an exact memoir, but it would have been a much better read.
   Next up? I'm not 100% sure, but it'll be from this decade. Promise. Happy reading!

What's Kristine Reading? August Edition

   Last month, I read a book that was kind of off of my radar, but really enjoyed it.  This month's book? Not so much. This month's book is literally an example of why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. And that book is "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel.

   Everything about this book screams "Kristine." It's historical fiction (possibly my favorite genre), by an English writer (she's actually Dame Hilary Mantel). And it's based on the time period of Henry VIII, which is arguably the most prolific era for scandal in British history. Let's face it, the Tudors were a mess. Royal affairs, bribery, beheadings... Oh, and that little thing of bringing down the Catholic church - the Tudors had it all going on. All fodder for an engaging story. It also won the Man Booker Prize, which is awarded to the UK's best original novel every year. Though this book was 600+ pages, I should have knocked it out in a week, if not a weekend.
   Y'all - it took me two years to finish. TWO YEARS. If it wasn't for my rule of always finishing a book once I start it (I've only not finished one book that I can remember), I would have thrown this book in the fire almost immediately. It was that hard to read.
   I'll get into why in a minute, but let me just give you a rundown of the plot. With other books, I would state "Spoiler Alert" here, but I'm assuming that everyone reading this knows the story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. If not, stop reading this and go pick up a history book. "Wolf Hall" tells the fictionalized biography of Thomas Cromwell. Not born into nobility, it tells of his rapid rise from the son of a poor, abusive father to Henry VIII's chief advisor / evil genius during the time of Anne Boleyn. The dissolution of the Catholic church in England and Henry's annulment of Queen Catherine of Aragon? That was our man Thomas. Fascinating time period and an extraordinary man. This should have been an amazing book. Yet, it wasn't. And here's why.
   I had no idea what was going for most of this book. Seriously. Here's what I took away from "Wolf Hall."

• Thomas Cromwell was born poor and his dad was a jerk (to put it mildly).
• He somehow got a job as a secretary to the very powerful Cardinal Wosley. 
• He married and had children. His wife and one daughter died of the plague.
• Through his connection with Wosley (I think), he met King Henry VIII.
• King Henry VIII was married to Catherine of Aragon. They had a daughter, Mary, who wasn't male and therefore couldn't be an heir. 
• Queen Catherine was previously married to Henry's brother (gross).
• Anne Boleyn? Not a very nice person. Manipulative and had pretty loose morals.
• Same goes for the rest of the Boleyn family, though I actually felt bad for Anne's sister Mary, who was forced to be the King's mistress while Anne was pregnant (again - GROSS!).
• Cardinal Wosley fell out of the King's favor, yet somehow Cromwell didn't.
• Lots of people were beheaded or burned at the stake.
• There was a witch. Or at least, King Henry thought she was a witch.
• Cromwell bailed Anne's cousin out of jail.
• At some point, thought I'm not sure exactly how, Henry divorced Catherine and married Anne.
• Royals throughout Europe hated Anne. 
• Anne gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth.
• There is a family named Pope who somehow had claim to the throne.
• There was a guy named Thomas More, who also died at the stake.   

   That might look like a lot, but for a book of this density and length, it's not. I was completely lost for most of the text. This was for several reasons. The first being the details. Oh my God, the detail in this book! Give Mantel credit - the woman knows how to research. But I think 50% of the book had nothing to do with the action of the book. While I like a good setup for an action, this was way too much. 

   Also, and this isn't really the author's fault, but everyone in this time period was named Henry, or Thomas, or Mary, or Elizabeth. You get the idea - they weren't very creative with names back then. And everyone had several titles. Sometimes Mantel would use a first name to reference a character, sometimes a last, and sometime a title but not always the same title. I had no idea what character she was referring to half the time.

    Mantel also did this really strange thing of starting paragraphs with "He." Why was this confusing? Because she would be talking about the King, and then start the next paragraph with "He," so I would assume she was still referring to the King. Nope - not necessarily. It took me a really long time to figure out that 90% of the time, she was referring to Cromwell with this "He."
   Additionally, and probably most importantly, the book was just confusing. It was one of those books where you could read a page three times and still have no idea what was going on. I KNOW Cromwell masterminded the annulment of Henry and Catherine, and I'm sure it was stated in the book, but I still have no idea how. I'd also love to know how seemingly everyone around Cromwell ends up dead at the request of Henry, but so far, Cromwell has been spared this fate. How does that happen? I guess he was really charismatic as he just kept rising up the corporate ladder while everyone is being exiled or beheaded. I would have loved to have known why this was, but I don't. Because I had no idea what was going on.  

    Maybe I'm just too shallow to appreciate a book of this depth. Maybe it's because I'm American and not British, so I don't care about the minuscule details and all of the titles confused me. I don't know. What I do know it that I read A LOT of books, and rarely have I had to struggle to finish one as much as I did "Wolf Hall."  

   On a side note - I'm actually racing this weekend! I'll be down on Hunstville, AL for the Rocketman Olympic triathlon. Not that I'm in shape...  Dealing with Hef's illness and passing pretty much left me in a state of shock and then depression from which I'm now just recovering. I basically had nothing but pizza and ice cream for a while there, with absolutely no exercise. So, I'm not expecting too much from Rocketman. But it's supposed to be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to it. Race report soon! 

What's Kristine Reading? July Edition

   As I've posted, I'm a avid reader. Always have been. Always will be. As a result, a lot of people ask what I'm currently reading and what my opinion of random books are. So, I'm adding a new section of the blog for books and will make an attempt to review one book a month. Interestingly, while I love to read and talk about books, I'm not much of an actual reviewer. I'm not one to go into the details of the subtle subtexts of books. I'm more of a "yes, I liked this book and you should read it" kind of girl. Now that I think about it, it's kind of like my race reports. While I won't be able to tell you my average watts on the bike leg at the Mach Tenn tri were, I can tell you the race is awesome and you should do it.

   That being said, the first book I'm reviewing is "The Name of the Wind" by Pat Rothfuss. This book was kind of a stretch for me, as it's a fantasy novel. Honestly, I have always been one of those people who have shunned away from those genres. You know, the ones who pick up a book, look at it and go "Ugh. It's sci-fi." put the book down and walk away. Not that I'm a literary snob. Lord knows I've read a lot of trash in my day. No, I just thought that a book about time travel / space / dragons / whatever wouldn't interested me. However, I saw this book listed on one of those Buzzfeed lists of "The Best Books EVER" and the commenters raved about it so much that I gave it a second look even though it was obviously a fantasy novel.  (Sidebar: For those who don't know, there is a difference between sci-fi and fantasy. Generally speaking, sci-fi novels contain plots that are rooted in technology: space travel, robots, etc.  Fantasy novels contain plots have no science behind them. They're based on magic and contain otherworldly creatures such as dragons. Make sense? Moving on.)
   Then I started thinking... I'm a huge Harry Potter fan and those are fantasy novels. I've read many of the Outlander series and those are technically sci-fi because of the time-travel. I've also read WAY too many vampire novels than I should admit to, which are also fantasy. So, I decided to say "screw it," embraced the inner nerd in me and checked out "The Name of the Wind" at my local library. Because that's how my inner geek celebrates. I go to my library. But I digress...
   So, here is my review: It was good. You should read it.
   Expecting a bit more? OK. Here goes. "The Name of the Wind" is the first part of a trilogy (The Kingkiller Chronicles) based on the autobiography of Kvothe, a legendary magician, traveler and musician living in a world called The Four Corners of Civilization. For reasons unknown, he is now in hiding and living the quiet life as an innkeeper. An unexpected meeting with a famed scribe called "The Chronicler" leads to Kvothe telling his life story over a period of three days. "The Name of the Wind" is the story from the first day, and covers Kvothe's life from his early nomadic childhood (his parents were basically carnies) through his first few semesters at University (age 15-16).
   I don't like spoilers when reading reviews, so I'm not going to go into any detail about the plot. I will say that this book has been compared to the Harry Potter series. I can kind of see that because both of the main characters are young, magical and going to school. But that's pretty much where the comparison ends. "The Name of the Wind" has a darker feel (at least when compared to the earlier Harry Potter books), and Kvothe is definitely more of a loner. Sure, he has friends, but there are no Ron and Herminone rushing to help him out of his many obstacles. Kvothe has to fend for himself. And he does. In some ways, too well for a character of his age. That's probably one of the main issues I have with the book. I kept feeling the character should be in his late teens to early 20's for most of the story.
   The book is written in a non-linear style, jumping back and forth in time between Kvothe's childhood and present day. Frequently, this type of book really annoys me. I like books that are in chronological order, however, Rothfuss spaced the time-jumping out enough to not be distracting. I also didn't have that hard of a time with the otherworldly language that is generally found in fantasy novels (I'm looking at you, "Wicked"). Sure, there were a few times when I had no clue what the characters were talking about, and I wish some of the magical spells were explained in a bit more detail, but overall, I was able to enter The Four Corners of Civilization pretty effortlessly. This is definitely a Level One book as far as fantasy books go. Perfect for people like me who generally shy away from this genre.
   For a book of almost 700 pages, "The Name of the Wind" moved pretty quickly. The first few chapters dragged a little bit, but once The Chronicler is introduced, the book picks up. I finished it within a week. Granted, I was on vacation and had a lot of time to read, but it would have kept my interest even without the extra reading time. I'm probably going to start the second book in the series "The Wise Man's Fear" next week. Truthfully, this is more so because I'm afraid I'll forget the characters if I don't read the sequel right away, rather than an overwhelming desire to continue the series. I didn't put this book down, run back to the library and get the next book immediately as I have with other book series. However, given my history of bias against fantasy novels, the fact that I'm actually planning on reading the next book should be some sort of sign as to how good the book is. When it comes down to it, it's a well-crafted story, and that's all I really want out of a book regardless of genre. For that reason, I'm recommending it.
   I have a few books in the works for next month, but if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know! I'm always looking for good books!